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where much of the paper made is of very excellent quality, different materials are used in different provinces. Hemp and linen rags are used in one part of the country; the inner bark of the mulberry tree in another; and in other parts, the bark of the elm, straw, bamboo, etc.

The Japanese make use principally of a kind of mulberry tree, and the paper manufactured by them is unequaled for strength and softness, qualities which enable it to be used for many purposes for which leather is commonly employed elsewhere, such as the making of ladies' reticules.

The natives of Mexico, before the Spanish Conquest, made their paper from the leaves of the agaveN plant, or American aloe, in a manner resembling the ancient mode of preparing papyrus.

After the introduction into Europe of cotton and linen rags as materials for paper making, the use of other vegetable fibers was for many centuries entirely, or almost entirely, given up; not so much, however, on account of their unfitness, as because rags, besides being admirably adapted for the purpose, were cheaper than any other material.

It was not until about the close of the eighteenth century that paper manufacturers began again to turn their attention to the possibility of using vegetable fibers as substitutes for rags. In 1772, a German published a work containing sixty specimens of paper made from different vegetable substances. From this time, serious attempts were made to find a process, by which some of these vegetable materials could be used with success to replace rags.

The difficulty did not consist in the mere con

version into paper of the materials on which experiments were made-for any vegetable fiber with a rough edge can be made into paper-but in making paper out of them of such quality and at such a price, as would enable the manufactured product to compete with that made from rags.

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Straw, wood, and esparto grass are the chief vegetable fibers which, with rags, have hitherto been found to answer these conditions, and all of these are now used more or less in paper making. The combination of flexible fibers by which the paper is produced, depends on the minute subdivision of the fibers, and their subsequent cohesion.

The rags used are chiefly cotton and linen. Woolen rags are no longer employed for the purpose. Cotton is used in the manufacture of paper not only in the form of rags, but also in that of waste or sweepings from spinning mills.

Before the rags or other materials can be made into paper, they must be torn or cut into minute particles so small that they form a pulp when mixed with water. A sheet of paper is a thin layer of this pulpy matter, mixed with some kind of glue or size to give it firmness, and then dried.

The invention of the machine for paper making is due to a Frenchman, and a patent was obtained for it by the inventor from the French Government in 1799. A method of treating straw so as to make it capable of being manufactured into paper, was invented at the beginning of the present century. Various improvements have since been effected, and there are now mills which produce no other kind of paper than that made mostly from straw and wood pulp; but the best and most important use of wood

and straw in paper making, is to impart stiffness to the paper.

Two processes have been patented for the manufacture of paper entirely from wood. By the first process the wood is reduced to a pulp by means of chemicals. By the other process the pulp is obtained by merely grinding down the wood and mixing it with water during the operation.

Esparto, or Spanish grass, and the kindred plant called alfa, which is brought from Algeria, have been applied to paper making only in comparatively recent years. The use of rushes for paper making belongs to this country, and dates from the year 1866. The paper made from this material is white, firm, and of good quality, and considerably cheaper than that made from wood.

Blotting paper is made in the same way as ordinary paper, except that the sizing is omitted. Pasteboard is made from coarse paper by pasting several sheets together, or by laying the sheets above one another when fresh from the mold and uniting them by pressure. This second method is much the better of the two, as the sheets cohere more firmly. Pasteboard made in the other way is very apt to split into separate sheets when subjected to unusual heat.

Nothing is more remarkable than the great number and diversity of new uses that have been found for paper in recent years. Besides being largely employed for making collars, cuffs, and other articles of dress, it is sometimes used for making small houses in the backwoods of our Western States and territories, which are found to be warmer than those made of wood or sheet iron. It is used also

for making boats, pipes, tanks, and pails for water; cuirasses firm enough to resist musket balls, wheels for railway carriages, and even bells and cannon have been made of it.

Notes and Questions. The word paper is derived from the word pa pý'rus.

The a ga've or American al'ō is a plant requiring from ten to seventy years to reach maturity. It then produces a gigantic flower stem forty feet in height, and perishes.

The es pär' to is a kind of rush grown in Spain, and used in the making of ropes, baskets, shoes, etc.

Hemp is the fibrous covering of a plant, and is used in making cloth and cordage.

Linen is thread or cloth made from flax or hemp.

What is the location of the following countries-Egypt, China, Japan, Algeria ?

Language. —A rět'i eûle is a small bag to be carried in the

hand.

Give two words ending in cule and show the force of the suffix; also, two words ending in cle and show the force of the suffix.

"I thought, Mr. Allen, when I gave my Bennie to his country, that not a father in all this broad land made so precious a gift,-no, not one. The dear boy only slept a minute-just one little minute-at his posts; I know never dozed over a duty. worthy he was!

that was all, for Bennie How prompt and trust