The Fibre Exhibit at the Chicago Exposition

Manawatu Herald, Volume III, Issue III, 26 September 1891, Page 2

The Fibre Exhibit at the Chicago Exposition

The efforts which are being made to increase the production of vegetable fibre in America will receive a strong stimulus from the display of i fibrous plants and jfcheir produotj at

the Coluuit/Jtm r . ' Group 9 of Official Classification includfs all of the vegetable fibres, such as cotton, hemp, flax, j"*e, ramie, in primitivo forms, <md iv all stages of preparation for spinning, subsl'tutes for hemp, c coanutt fibre and all similar substances America grows annually about on^ million acres of flax, and a very large acreage of heuip, and these t»o are the principal fibre producing plants, wfrh the except on of cotton Tl c imports of ttxi'e grasses and fibre* now amount to about 258,000 ton? per annum, valued at about fourteen million dollars. Heretofore flax has been grown py the farmers of the country almost entirely for seed, a part of the straw going to tow or paper mills and bunging on nn average not more than $2.50 to $1 00 a ton, the remainder, and as much larger part, being burned or wasted. Fibrelia, a new product from common flax straw, promises to have an important bearing on textile interests in the future. By a process of manipulation the straw is reduced, to a short sfcap c very closly resembling cotton or wool, audwheu mixed with either ia siid to add materially to the value of the product in beauty and strength. It is claim el that twenty.flve per cent, of fibrelia mixed with seventy-five per cent, of wool made into broadcloth gives a product much more valuable than if made of wool alone. The area devoted to the cultivation of American hemp has of late years "been exteuded into Stateß N- rth of the Ohio River, and recent experiments encourage the hope that Sisal heoip may be profitably grown in Florida Amcng other fibre plants now attracting considerable attention, especially in the temporate sections of the United States where thore is not a great amount of rainfall, is ramie, a plant indigenous to Java and China, and from which it is exported in large quantities to France, Germany , and England, and manufactured into linen and silks. California has appropriated $5,000 to purchase ramie roots for free distribution and as a bounty for merchantable ramie. The fibre of this plant, receives and retains the moist brilliant dyes ; is very repugnant to moth, and its tensile strength is forty per ioent. greater than flax. It ranks next to silk as a textile fabric. When cultivated if, grows luxuiiently in the Southern States and in Southern California, tvd the only difficu^j^ttending 1 the product is that a. nifSnine which wiU effecttual y separate the fibre from the stalk lma not been produced, although a number of machiues have been invented for the purpose and will be ! exhibited at the Exposition. The exhibits of hemp, flax, jute, ramie, etc., at the Paris Exposition in 1878, and at the Centennial in 1876 were very interesting and complete, and is the purpose of Chief Buchanan, of the. Agricultural Department, to make, this group at the Columbian Exposition equally so, and fully illustrative of the progress made jn. later years in the cultivation of fibre plauts and the methods of preparing the raw. material 'for the market.

1 '.MhpeM, Bathurßt), writes, " That he A-.miv. "*'>vrc a grand pick-me-up and it e«Tipie«si.y k. Mm of low spirits, indigestion, giddiness au«.. nui-imsvff noises in the ears." Mr G. Swan, Junee Junction, who suffered from debility, cardiac weakness and nervousness, following on typhoid, took Clmmentb' Tonic and says, "That after taking fi or 7 bottles his health was fu"y restored, and that he can now eat anything and do any reasonable amount of work, whereas before taking Clements' Tonic he could do noae at all." Clements' Tonic can be obtained from a'l medicine dealers or from F. M. OLEI MENTS, 'Newtown Sydney.