The Mathews journal. (Mathews C.H. [Court House]) 1903-1937, 1911-08-10
PAPER FAMINE
DUE TO FIRES
RICHMOND.


The recent terrible fires In North
ern Ontario and In Michigan give ad-
ditional point to the subject of the
paper famine with which, until Just
lately, IL seemed that the world might
one day be confronted.
Each day on this continent i'm
mense forests are felled, their trees
falling under the Ratchet that they
may be converted into paper.
According TO statistics the wood
pulp of the United States is being used
up at such enormous speed that IL
continued at the present rate Wis
conSin, Michigan and Minnesota will
be completely denuded In thirty years
After that Canada, as may readily
be seen, Will be pushed greedily to tho
finishing point. says the Ottawa Free
Press.
AT the present moment a capital or
over six hundred million and an army
of over eight hundred thousand men
are employed in the exploitation
say, rather, the eXhaustion-of the
Western and Northern forests, the
annual product of which represents a
sum Of more than one hundred mil
lion dollars.
To the devastations thus committed
by the hand of man one must add the
destruction caused by fires, which
have, it is estimated, consumed during
the last ten years upward OF fifty mil
lions of trees.
Learned past masters in the art OF
making figures talk are fond of calcu-
lating Just how many years will elapso
before the civilized world will be COM
pletely bare of pulpwood. The date Is
not too far distant, they tell us, when
some other material will have to be
sought for purposes OF paper making
and they talk of a return to the cui-
uVation of papyrus, the classic reed
which played such an important part
in the intellectual life Of the ancients
Cut down one Of our forests today
and II Will be necessary to wait forty
or fifty years before the second growth
Will be in q condition ready for ex-
ploitatPn. A papyrus plantation, on
the other hand, will, it is said, give
three harvestS year, the ordinary
yield being about one hundred tons to
the acre.
Papyrus. according to Horace Wears
ReeS, who writes OF it in the London
Graphic, attains a height of from
twelve to fifteen feet with astonishing
rapidity.
The ancient Egyptians cut the papy-
rus lengthwise in very fine strips.
These strips they placed one beside
the other, so as to form a thin layer,
and upon one layer they then super
imposed a second layer. so placed that
the lines of the fiber crossed at right
angles. The two layers were next
subjected to an enormous pressure
which caused the natural gum of tho
plant to flow evenly from all it's parts,
and thus literally gummed the two
layers together to form a leaf which,
when thoroughly dry, was very fine,
light and practically indestrucuble by
ordinary wear.
Paper made OF woodpulp is an alto
gether modern invention, and one
which already gives signs of deca-
dence. Books printed in our times are
destined TO return to dust in at most
n -.
ten on the hand-woven papyrus of an
cient times, on the contrary, though
dated at period three thousand six
HUNDRED years before Christ, are still
strong, and their subject-matter de-
cipherable.
Now. Egypt was the only country In
the world that furnished papyrus to
the ancients. and Egypt abused its
---OnCi,Oiy, refusing to certain foreign
potentates all commerce in its pre-
'lous product Necessity was then, as
now the mother of invention. The
II parchment spread. The art of
fabricating paper from linen and cot
eO.i SlOth lnaUS rapid progress. Fin
ally, the time came when papyrus
which had been out of use since the
days of Charlemagne, fell into obliv-
ion. So through greed and penurious-
ness a great industry was lost.
But II happens that progress some
times consists in a return to things
out or use and half forgotten. This
threatened paper famine has turned
the attention of modern industry to-
ward the plant and the substance
which for an almost unthinkable pc
riod of years was the sole instrument
for the diffusion of intellectual life
among the peoples of the Mediterra-
mean.
For many years past, says Mr.. Rees,
well-known explorer, Mr.. Smedley
Norton, has been travelling the length
and breadth of Egypt in his endeavor
to find trace of the precious reed
which had totally disappeared from
the valley Of the Nile.
After having explored all Egypt.
visiting districts into which the
stranger never goes, and Arab tribes
the most remote from civilization, Mr.
Smedley finally succeeded. He founo
the famous reed. He transported il to
the Delta of the Nile, from which, as
have said. it disappeared centuries
ago, and on the outskirts of Alexan-