University Missourian. [volume] (Columbia, Mo.) 1908-1916, 1911-11-15
year the United States used

900 cords of wood to make our paper
i'll 1850. To furnish this amount OF
wood from the present forests is i'm
possible. If every acre cut over each
year were refOrested it would be
twenty-five or thirty years or
possibly even longer before the
trees would be big enough to
cut. AS the forest cannot pOssi-
bly, stand the overdrafts that are con-
stantly being made upon them, it is
only a question Of limited number
Of years until paper fiber must be
grown as a crop, as are practically
all other plant materials entering
into the economy of man. While
only few of the by-products of the
farms yielding paper fiber can be
grown profitably for paper fiber sole
ly, it seems possible that raw pro-
ducts now scarcely considered may in
few years play an important part in
the paper and pulp industry.
We have 100000 900 acres of corn
with one and one-haIf tons of stalks
to the acre, or total of $50, 900 900
tons of cOrnstalks annually rotting
on the ground. A great addition to
the wealth of the farm will result if
this immense supply of material can
be made into paper and pulp pro-
ducts at a reasonable cost. Results
obtained from these cornstalks show
that the same processes can be ap-
piled to great number of grasses.
rushes and sedges which have a SIM
liar structure to the corn plant. Much
work has been done with cornstalks
with the view of making paper out of
them and the work has at last been
crowned with success. Papers of
most excellent quality have been
made from eight or ten varieties of
cGrn stalks the past season.
About half a century ago the price
of rags became so high that the pa
DER manufacturers were forced to
find some substitute. Certain kinds
of grasses and woods were found to
make very excellent paper indeed.
Now the same conditions have arisen
again. Our use of paper has grown
so extensively and our forests have
decreased so rapidly that paper i
makers are again facing dearth of
raw material. In the course of time !
this disparity in the supply and de- !
mand will become even greater and i
We must find some means of making /
DUr paper more cheaply.
With the exception of cbston. all of |
the raw vegetable fibers that enter !
into paper making have to be sepa-
rated from each other by some me-
or chemical method One of .
he easiest and cheapest of these |
methods is the mechanical Wood
Of certain kinds is ground between
'CllerS over which water is run. The
Du Up thus obtained is of the cheapest |
Kind and is used in the manufacture
jf cheap books. newspapers and 9TH
II cheap printing papers. 1t is first /
mixed with certain per cent of 1
llgher grade pulp before it is fit to
,rint on. 1t is also used in the man.
fracture of pressed fiber utensils. In
he other methods of producing pa
,er, certain chemicals are used to dis
Give the gums. resins and other
substances which hold the
liant together. Two classes of chem
calls are used-the acids and the al
kalis. A good example of pulp pro-
luced by the acid method is the we'll
,nOwn sulphite fiber produced from
he spruce tree. In this case sui
'huric acid is the solvent used. The
lkali method is the one more COM
lonly employed. In this case caus-
ic soda is the solvent most generally
sed. Chemical pulp. produced
ither by the sulphite or the soda
rocess, and pulp from rags are the
ases of nearly all the better grades
# writing. printing and wrapping
apers.
During the past ten years many ex-
eriments have been carried on by
aper manufacturers to produce pa
er out of some of our present waste
orn products. They have found that
aper can be made out of many pro-
ucts, but that it can be made at a
rofit out of only a few, two at most.
OF these products that go to
,aste on the farm cornstalks are
erhaps best adapted to paper MAX
ng. The stalks are cut up into
mall bits two or three inches In
ength and run through screens that
emOve the field dirt. They are then
leansed with water to get the dirt
hat NAV ho c1in1 1in1 IN fhonn oookoA