The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-09-05
USEFUL FIBRE PLANTS.
Interesting Facts in n New Descrip-
tive Catalogue.
From the New York Sun.

From the New York Sun.
Charles Richards Dodge, special agent
of the department of agriculture, has just
issued a descriptive catalogue of the use
full fibre plants of the world, which in
cludes LOIS species. It is likely to prove
a valuable addition to the literature of
economic industries, as no work on this
subject so complete has ever been issued
by any country. Mr.. Dodge's attention
was attracted to this line of investigation
by the Australian exhibit at the Phila-
delphia centennial, which illustrated a Sc
ries of experiments in economic fibre in
vestigation conducted by DR.. Guilfoyle of
the Melbourne Botanic Gardens.
The importance of fibre plants for COM
mercial uses has increased largely as the
qualities of unknown plants have been in
vestigated 1t is a fact, however, and an
interesting one, that the most valuable
commercial fibres to-day We're the most
valuable commercial fibres of ancient
times, an illustration of the survival of
the fittest. Flax, cotton, hemp, the lilac
eous fibres, many of the palms and roots,
were valued in past ages, and were en-
ployed in connection with common animal
fibres, as wool, hair and silk. Mr.. Dodge
says that it may be conjectured that The
rude knotting of the twisted ilaments of
fibre In the form of nets may have suS-
gested the first weaving, and then the
substitution of vegetable clothing for the
skins of animals.
According to his catalogue, flax has a
greater antiquity than any of the other
fibres known to-day, for its cultivation
goes back TO the stone age in Europe 1t
is known to have been manufactured by
the Swiss lake jewellers, a people contem-
Wi aSyf ma M
moth and other great mammals of the
quaternary epoch, as specimentS g the
straw, fiber and fabrics prepared by the
are preserved In museums. AT a later Pc
riod, though still remote by four or five
thousand years, the Egyptians cultivated
a somewhat different fax that resembled
the commercial article of to-day. They
were skilled in spinning and weaving fax
before the books of Genesis and Exodus
were written, and pictures illustrating the
culture and manufacture of this textile are
carved upon the walls of palaces, temples
and tombs. Egyptian fabrics of linen $500
years old, ranging from the most delicate
tissues to stuff like sail cloth, have been
found among the mummy cloths, and as
many as 800 yards were sometimes used
to enwrap one body The linens We're both
white and dyed in colors, yellow, red and
purple, and they were handsomely en-
broidered. The Phoenicians did much to
extend the culture of fax and the art of
weaving linen, as their ships plowed the
Atlantic more than 5000 years ago, and
centuries before Christ the Babylonians
were noted for their luxury and the high
state of the development of their textile
art, flax, cotton and wool being manufac-
featured by them.
Wool says MIR. Dodge, was more
grown in ancient Greece than flax, though
the latter textile was produced in certain
favorable districts and imported in large
quantities for manufacture. There was a
distinct linen Industry, slaves being the
operatives. as wei as a household indus
try, for whether in the cottage or the pal
ace, if possible a special room was set
apart for the occupation of weaving. In
Hoineric times not only were maids and
ladies of high degree familiar with weav-
ing, but with spinning and embroidery,
and the distaff and spindle were often
made of ivory or of gold. As in Greece,
so in Rome there were regular linen es-
adjustments, and at the same time a do
nestle manufacture practiced by maids
and matrons. Wooden was earlier used for
clothing by the Romans; then linen was
employed. first for domestic uses, then as
a dress material, the women adopting ii
before the men.
| Regarding the early use Of linen in our