The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1909-04-13

| and Korea is woven. Many small mills
are springing Up, ON worked by
steam and others by water power aad
electricity. The center of the weay-
ing industry is about Osaka, which
is also the center of the spinning in
dustry. That city has more than
twenty thousand houses in which
weaving is done It has scores OF
large factories, and the smoke from
their stacks makes the town seem
more like Pittsburg than any in Japan.
Osaka is now as big as Philadelphia.
and it has grown greatly within the
past few years.
Japanese Mating
This region is the center Of the
mating industry. There are many
factories about Osaka bay and here
in Kobe which make millions OF yards
Of mating for export and millions OF
mats for home consumption. The
Japanese do not use mating like that
exported to the United States. TIE
most common carpet here is made Up
of white straw woven into mats an
inch thick, a yard wide and two yards
long. These mats are the unit Of5ur-
face measurement for almost every
thing. The rooms OF the houses are
rectangular and their sizes are est
mated at the Number of mats it takes
to cover them. When a man orders
o. IlOUSo uu11L lie uIIcClS lldL 1t De
one Of so many mats, and the cost or
construction is based upon that est
mate. These mats are bound with
black CLOTH, and as they fit closely the
floor is covered with a number Of
these white rectangles surrounded by
mack. Japan uses over fourteen mil
lion such mats every year. and also
three or four million pieces Of ord
nary mating OF the same shape. The
value OF the whole is several million
dollars.
AS to mating for export. the man
ufacture of that began less than TWEEN
ty years ago., and it now brings i'll
something like five million dollars Z
year. Almost the whole of this eX-
port is to the United States, ~our pu1'-
chases of japanese mating annualiy
amounting to something like twenty
million yards. The most of this -
cheap and coarse. but other varieties
are as fine as q Panama hat. They
are now making new patterns with
raised figures. [ have lust ordered
a roll sent home which looks like
brocaded silk woven of straw.
This mating is made out Of q reed
which grows about here. 1t has no
knots anw is mich like rice, although
It's seed has no value. It is planted
and cultivated in the same way, and
is we'll dried and b1eached before it
is sold. The mating is dyed with ana
line cOlOrS. 1t is woven like cloth.
hut all the pieces have to be put ln
by hand. The work is tedious, and
of the finer varieties two men AND
an assistant can make not more than
three rolls per month
The Japanese are now WGavInG
beautiful straw rugs in flowers n
other patterns and these are exceed
ingly cheap. I have bought some about
six by ten feet in size at SO or oo
cents each and the highest price |
have paid for, any mating is less than
20 cents gold per yard.
II Native COttonS.
The most beautiful cottons mad@
here are intended for NATIVE con
snmption. They are not much moro
than q foot wide and are artiSicaiN
printed in designs far different from
4 the loud figures used on the goods
for the United States mar
| kets. The cotton crepe. for home USE
is beautiful and it would have q b1c
sale in the United States for curtains
| if it were sent there. Ia Japanes'.
use it for their everyday sunuae'
/ kimonos.<~
Another interesting+t manufacture OF
1 cotton~is that which the native people
employ here for toweline. These have
! gay figures printed in white and blue
/ Every firm has it's own 1design anC
not a few OF the native hotels gIvF
I away towels of this kind to Their
gnests. Within the past few years
unite a craze has sprung uD among I'll"
/ foreign ladies' visiting JaDan1to maxi
rnfIections~of these towels. eand i
I Know many who buy piecesseof them