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From the Northampton Mass Courier.

 Enc improvements in paper making have extended Ih this country with rapidity hardly equaled by any other branch of man ufactures. We were impressed with this fact, the other day, when looking through the extensive paper-mills of Messrs. How ard & Lathrop, at South Hadley Canal. The system of making paper by hand, is now almost discarded. It was slow, awkward process, and required the labor of three men d day to make what is now ac- complished by machine in about one hour. The pulp, made of rags, is taken up by sheet of flannel wound tightly round cy- finder. It Is then passed on over and be- tween other successive cylinders, heated with steam, until 1t is thrown off at the other end, continuous sheet of paper, perfect in all it's parts, of the proper width, and dried, nearly ready for the printers use.

 The pulp which is taken up at one end of the machine, and delivered as paper at the other end, traverses distance of abou, ten feet from one extremity to the other, and the time occupied in the process hardly ex- ceeds three minutes! There are various other improvements of less magnitude, but of great importance, such as bleaching the rags, reducing them to pulps and in drying the paper. Formerly every sheet was sub jected to the awkward process of drying upon poles, whereas 1t IS now dried upon heated cylinders receiving at the same time most beautiful finish.

 Messrs. Howard & Lathrop have in ope- ration the Patent Cylindrical Machine, about which there has been so much litiga- ton between themselves and Mir. David Ames, of Springfield. This machine has enabled paper makers to reduce the price of paper nearly fifty per cent. and there has been common feeling among them the country over, to resist the exactions of Mr. Ames, who claims this important machine as has omn, when the fact has clearly enough been established that 1t is, on his part, surreptitious invention! Messrs. Howard & Lathrop have for years been harassed with expensive and tedious law suits by Mr. Ames, and they still resist his preposterous demands. The paper-makers have made common cause in this matter, and 1t is one ia which every printer has d direct pefsonal interest.