ly speaking, paper varies in quality according to the proportion
of fibrous material, such as rag, used in the manufacture. To make
paper satisfactorily by hand, a large proportion of such fibrous
material is necessary, so that the fact that the paper is hand-made is
to some extent a guarantee of its quality. There are various qualities
of hand-made paper, made from different materials, chiefly linen and
cotton rags. The best paper is made from pure linen rag, and poorer
hand-made paper from cotton rag, while other qualities contain a
mixture of the two or other substances.

It is possible to make a thoroughly good paper by machinery if good
materials are used. Some excellent papers are made by machinery; but
the enormous demand for paper, together with the fact that now almost
any fibrous material can be made into paper, has resulted in the
production, in recent years, of, perhaps, the worst papers that have
ever been seen.

This would not matter if the use of the poor papers were restricted to
newspapers and other ephemeral literature, but when, as is often the
case, paper of very poor quality is used for books of permanent
literary interest, the matter is serious enough.

Among the worst papers made are the heavily loaded "Art" papers that
are prepared for the printing of half-toned process blocks. It is to
be hoped that before long the paper makers will produce a paper that,
while suitable for printing half-toned blocks, will be more
serviceable, and will have a less unpleasant surface.

Several makers produce coloured handmade papers suitable for end
papers. Machine-made papers can be had in endless variety from any
number of makers.

The paper known as "Japanese Vellum" is a very tough material, and
will be found useful for repairing vellum books; the thinnest variety
of it is very suitable for mending the backs of broken sections, or
for strengthening weak places in paper.

The following delightful account of paper making by hand is quoted
from "Evelyn's Diary, 1641-1706."

"I went to see my Lord of St. Alban's house at Byflete, an old large
building. Thence to the paper mills, where I found them making a
coarse white paper. They cull the raggs, which are linnen, for white
paper, woollen for brown, then they stamp them in troughs to a papp
with pestles or hammers like the powder-mills, then put it into a
vessell of water, in which they dip a frame closely wyred with a wyre
as small as a haire, and as clo