The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1922-03-20
Could Make 100000. 300 -crs.

But when a liberal estimate does
not exceed 800 acre; 20 nulp mill
producing tifty tons Of firi ;rr.l unlp
per day or 10000 tons in 4 WORKING
year, this eStimat dllUwipg iGr Lar.
vesting only half az of'"n "a repealed
experiments show The 4ras, can le
cut it is readily seen that wEel Suf-
ficient mills are built 10 utilize 'he
grass of this state .;lOue. Tire :o.al
capacity would be three Nnl;ion tons
a year. which is sufficient 20 haep
the United States from worrying
And the beauty of this Florida prod
net is that il comes nacK year AFTER
year and increases IN a.aa every
time it is harvest al. ContrasieI with
forests that require twHn1y 20 thirt,
years to repl2co tie rlW material fer
paper making here in Florida is a
gold mine. And, uuCl this rnw pro
cess for making j. into paper vas
worked nur sawgvlSS was an Ut;c'
waste {. GTLduct t;a: Cbs>ructed nav
CATION IN lakes and / cams avn
caused duck hunters many tattered
garments and ragged dispositions.
Whole World Seeking Fiber.
For the past sevrai years the en-
tire civilized world has been seeking
a substitute for wood pulp in paper
making. Recently the French have
experimental with papyrus in Egypt
and Zuuland and have spent much
more money finding out how to work
it than the Leesburg plant will cost.
the day it turns out a hundred tons
of raw material into its huge digest
er, including all the experimenting.
the organization and the financing eX-
pense. And the French have made
some fine paper with their papyrna.
have set out something like 2000,
acres of it and have ii under cultlSa-
ton, and are getting ready 10 mako
it on a commercial basis. But theY
find that its cost will be very high
1t will have to compete with fine pa
pers made from linen rags if the CON-
mercial venture is to be a financial
success. Contrast this with the cost
OF this FlOrida-made fiber which t.
equally strong and attractive to the
market but can be manufaC, at 4
profit as cheaply as the commences
kind of wood pulp. Not that II will
be sold at that price, but merely that
il could be and still leave a profit.
Another field of experimentation
this among the English. is in India.
where the bamboo is being made into
paper. This. also, must be cultiva p
ed. 1t makes ~OoG D?per and the
material can be proGuceI much mora
quickly than sspruce, but the expense
of harvesting. growing, Transporting
and manufacturing it is so muCn
greater than the expense of Florida
product that it is no answer to the
cry Still another material has been
utilized in this country, this bling the
bagasse from cane grinding. Hero
and in Cuba this is plentiful in seaa-
on but the trouble with this has been
that all the work of a vast plant had
to be done in a very short while and
the highly trained employees of the
mill either have to be paid for idle
time or the force broken up and re-
cruted again the next season. either
of which is an expensive operation.
Likewise with rice straw. cotton
stalks and the various fiber bearing
materials. The cost of gathering and
transportation has been beyond thai
warranted by the price that could be
obtained commercially for the quail.
ty of materials manufactured.
Two Million Gallons Water Daily.
Having eliminated all possible oh
jections from a commercial stand
point. the Grass Fibre Pulp and Pa
per Corporation. more than a year
ago, set about securing the funds and
erecting a demonstration pulp mill.
The shore of Lake Griffin, at Lees
burg, was selected as the site for this
I liant for several reasons One of the
first requisites in the manufacture of
pulp or paper is the plentiful supply
of clean, pure water and Lake Grit
fin water was analysed by three pa
per chmists and pronounced highly
AS the plant will re.
quire two million gallons of water ev-
cry twenty-four hours when it is run
ming at its ultimate capacity, this was
very essential. Another reason for
the selection of this site was that the
corporation controlled upwards of
1900 acres Of sawgrass on the ed
u.