Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1891-08-06
VEGETABLE FIBRE.
The Fibre Exhibit at the Exposition

The efforts which are being made to incrs-
! ase the production of vegetable fibre In this
country will receive strong stimulus from
the display of fbrous plants and their pro
ducts at the Columbian exposition.
! Groop 9 of the official classification in
cludes all of the vegetable fbers, such a;
cotton, hemp, fax, Jute, ramie, in prim.
tive forms, and in all stages of prepara.
ton for spinning, substitutes for hemp
cocoanut fiber and all similar substan.
ces.
This country grows annually about one
million acres of flax, and very large acre.
age of hemp, and these to are our principal
ii 5re producing plants, with the exception
of cotton.
Our imports of textile grasses and flores
now amount to about 258,00O tons per
annum. valued at about fourteen million
dollars. There seems to be no good reas-
on why large part Of the above sum
should be paid to home producers, which
would be the case if more attention was
PAID to tie production of vegetable fibre
IN this country than has been done in the
past. Heretofore fax has been grown
by the farmers of this country almost
entirely for seed, part of the straw go
ing to tow or paper mills and bringing
ON an average not more than So so to 81 90
ton, the remainder, and much larger
part, being bdrned or wasted. To what
extent flaX may be proftably grown, both
TOR seed and fibre, Is one of the vexed
problems which it is hoped the exhibit at
at the exposition will throw some light
upon. Investigations show that the ave-
rage humidityof the fax producing Sec
lions of this country is the same as that of
Belgium and other parts of Europe, where
the production of fax for fibreis the chief
industry of the farming population, and
the exhibit of fax from those countries
will no doubt prove interesting and val
liable to American farmers.
Fibrella a new product from common
flax straw, promises to have an important
bearing ON textile interests in the future.
By process Of manipulation the straw
is reduced to a short staple very closely
resembling Gotten or wool, and when
mixed with either is said to add materially
to the value of the product in beauty and
strength. 1t is claimed that twenty-five
per cent. of fbrella mixed with seventy five
per ceut OF wool made into broadclotb
gives product much more valuable than
WOOL alone.
The area devoted to the cultivation of
American hemp has of late years been ex-
tended into states north of the Ohio river,
and recent experiments encourage the hope
that Slsal hemp may be proftably grown
in Florida.
Among other fibre plants now attract
ing considerable attention especially In
the temperate sections of the United
States, where there is not plant indlgen-
Gus to Java or China, and from which 1T
is exported in large quantities to France,
Germany and England, and manufactured
into linen and silks. California has ap-
propriated S., 900 to purchase ramie roots
for free distribution and as a bounty
for merchantable ramie. The fibre of
this plant receives and retaines the most
brilliant dyes; is very repugnant to moths,
and its tensile strength is forty per cent.
greater than fax. 1t ranks next to silk
as textile fabric. When cultivated
it grows luxuriantly in the southern states
and in southern California, and the only
difficulty attending the product is that
machine which will effectually separate
the fibre from the stalk has not been pro-
duced, although a number of machines
have been invented for the purpose and
will be exhibited at the exposition.
The exhibits OF hemp, fax, jute, ramie,
ETC., at the Paris exposition in 1878, and
at the Centennial in 1876 were very inter
esting and complete, and it is the purpose
of Chief Buchanan, of the agricultural De,
partment, to make this groop at the Col
umbian exposition equally so, and fully
illustrative of the progress made in later
years in the cultivation of fibre plants and
the methods of preparing the raw material
for market.