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For 20 centuries, vegetable fibers from various sources have been converted into thin sheets for use in trade, communications, law, and even for shelter. Cotton and linen rags were the first fibrous raw materials to acquire widespread status in paper making, and they are still needed for specialty products. Increasing demands for paper ultimately surpassed the availability of rags, so that other sources of fiber were sought. About the year 1800, numerous other materials of agricultural origin began to come into use somewhat temporarily. Although woods have become the prime source of paper making fibers during the last 100-125 years, annual plant fibers retain their importance. The technical feasibility of non-woody materials is substantiated by more than 300 paper mills throughout the world that use such raw materials. Both necessity and special properties account for their use. The potential for various nonwoody fibrous plants is being investigated intensively by the United States Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Service, to discover new crops that might hare practical significance in the national agricultural program and in the commercial production of paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In essay-type examinations for degrees in British universities, marking customs tend to compress the candidates into a narrow band around the mean. This works especially adversely against those who, in examinations with several papers, achieve excellence in one or more. Often such candidates are awarded only the minimum distinction mark, the effect of which is nullified by aggregation. This is of some consequence in the British system, since the designation of a candidate's examination performance as 'First Class,' 'Second Class, Upper Division,' etc. is formally made by locating his examination average mark within specified intervals on a percentage scale. Awareness of the possible injustice which this method may cause has given rise to the practice of estimating the 'balance of papers,' or considering the 'classes' attained by the individual papers in the examination (irrespective of the actual mark), and giving the candidate the benefit of the doubt should he, for example, have a certain number of papers in a class higher than that indicated by his examination average. A classification reached in this way may of course be at variance with that indicated by the candidate's average of marks, and thus introduce an arbitrary element. An alternative method is therefore proposed in this paper. The usual custom is to assume that the marks indicating the various classes should be the same for the degree as a whole and for the individual papers. It would seem preferable first to determine the balance of papers which would be accepted as a claim to a First Class degree (since it is unlikely that a candidate writing several papers will be able to attain a first class mark in all) and deduce therefrom the classification intervals for the individual papers. A method of doing so is elaborated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]