If desired, the crushed stems may be dried and stored; such drying, however, must be very carefully conducted and watched to avoid destructive fermentation. I have in the preceding "Remarks" referred to "FLAX," "HEMP," "JUTE," and similar FIBRES known to commerce, such fibres being imported into this country in their prepared condition, suitable for Textile purposes. They have, in fact, passed through a process of semi-manufacture, such process, as I have explained, being required to separate the ultimate fibres from the interior woody stem to which when growing they are attached; and it is obvious that it would not be (economically) possible to import any of these fibrous plants as grown or produced, owing to their enormous bulk in that condition. Now although the stems of the "BAMBOO," after cutting and crushing, may, as I have shown, be dried (and will when dried give a yield of 60 per cent. of fibre), still their bulk and extreme lightness would preclude importing them to this country in their _raw_ condition, not merely from their heavy cost for carriage, but from their liability to damage from fermentation. For these economical considerations, therefore, I propose to reduce the "BAMBOO" into "_Fibrous-Stock_" where grown or produced. It may be well, before entering into details of the process, briefly to explain the ordinary system employed for preparing fibres, or fibrous materials, as also rags, for Paper-making. This consists in sorting, cutting, cleaning, and, if need be, roughly opening them, followed by boiling in alkaline leys, after which they are well washed until cleansed from impurities in what is technically termed the rag or breaker engine, during which operation they are disintegrated or reduced into "_Half-stuff_," or _semi-pulp_, this being subsequently bleached and converted into pulp and paper. As the object of my process is to produce a fibrous or tow-like _Stock_, retaining as far as possible the normal or natural condition of the fibre, and not "_Half-stuff_" or "_Pulp_," my system of treatment differs materially from the foregoing, more especially in the boiling and washing processes. Both of these processes I conduct in a battery, or series of vessels (16, 20, or more in number), such vessels being connected together by pipes, or channels, furnished with valves, or cocks, so that communication between the individual vessels may be maintained, disconnected, and regulated as desired, in such manner that the vessels, being methodically charged in succession with the material to be operated upon, the heated leys (composed of caustic alkali) can be progressively conducted from vessel to vessel of the series, passing over and through the material placed therein.