Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 103, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 April 1916 — COTTON STALKS HAVE VALUE [ARTICLE]

COTTON STALKS HAVE VALUE

Hltherto; Regarded as Waste, They Are to Be Turned Into a Marketable Commodity. Considering the fact that in the neighborhood of 75,000,000 tons of cotton stalks have been destroyed annually as worthless and only in the way, the possibilities of a plant capable of converting them into paper and artificial silk are readily comprehended. A plant is now being erected at Greenwood, Miss., which will be devoted to the preparation of pulp from cotton stalks, and it is said that owing to the stronger fibers of the cotton stalk pulp, paper manufactured from it is considerably stronger in proportion to its thickness and weight than that produced from the usual wood pulp. It has been the custom to cut and burn the stalks, after the cottonpicking season has ended, at a cost of about a dollar a ton. The use of cotton pulp is not limited to the making of paper. The stalk fibers have been found capable of withstanding the nitrating process involved in the making of gun-cotton. The fibers also produce an artificial silk, motion-pic-ture films, and such chemicals as pyroxllene, alcohol and acetone.