Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 41, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 October 1893 — Fortune in the Field. [ARTICLE]

Fortune in the Field.

Recent experiments point to the growth of a new and profitable industry from the prolific scrub growth of the Florida forests and fields. It has been proved that the leaf of the saw palmetto can be ground into a pulp which makes an excellent article of hollow-ware for domestic and other uses, and the present experiments are expected to prove the adaptability of this material to the making of all kinds of paper. For some time past the peculiar cabbagelike substance in the txfp of the cabbage palmetto has been used with the tender tops as well, as a fiber in the manufacture of parchment. It is now proposed toobtain cheappaper fiber from the ordinary scrub plant. Some of this pulp has been successfully worked up into pails, tubs, basins and other hollow-ware. The supply of saw palmetto is practically inexhaustible in Florida. Millions of acres are covered with it, and when cut down to the ground it grows up again two or three times a year. A crop that grows without cultivation and in such very large quantities blds fair to have “millions in it”