One of the first requisites in making good paper, especially the better grades, is an abundance of pure water, and spring-water, where available, is preferred. The effort has been made in the description given to cover the process of making paper from the crudest rags. In enumerating the several kinds of paper, in another chapter, brief reference will be made to the varying methods required in their manufacture. In this chapter, no attempt has been made to cover more than the principal divisions or varieties of paper--writing, print, and wrapping papers. ♦The center of the industry♦ The United States, with characteristic enterprise, leads the world in paper-making, supplying about one-third of all that is used on the globe. The city of Holyoke, in Massachusetts, is the greatest paper center in the world, turning out each working-day some two hundred tons of paper, nearly one-half of which is “tub-sized,” “loft-dried” writings. The region in the vicinity of Holyoke is dotted with paper-mills, and within a few miles of the city is made about one-half of all the “loft-dried” writings produced in the United States. The tiny acorn planted two centuries ago has waxed with the years, gaining strength and vigor with the increasing strength of the nation, till now it has become a giant oak, whose branches extend to the lands beyond the seas. [Illustration: SLITTING AND WINDING--PAGE 78] CHAPTER VI WATER-MARKS AND VARIETIES OF PAPER ♦Importance of water-marks♦ Though the water-mark in a sheet of paper may at first thought seem a comparatively unimportant detail, the story of water-marks and the part they have played in momentous transactions would easily furnish material for a volume. Especially is this true of the early water-marks, with which there is connected much interesting history. They have even become important witnesses in the courts of justice, where their silent but eloquent testimony has brought confusion to seemingly clever criminals. The proof of the time when a water-mark was introduced has been the means of fixing the crime of forgery, where the forger, in order to reach the end sought through the forged document, dated the same back, and unconsciously used a paper bearing a water-mark of a later date. As the early water-marks have suggested the names of many varieties of paper, the two subjects are fittingly coupled.