18 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



tive information relating to all branches of the industry, in importing 

 proper seed for experimental cultivation, and in directing experi- 

 ments, either on its own account or in co-operation with State and 

 even private interests. The testing of new labor-saving machinery 

 has also come within its province. 



The subject in its details will be better understood by con- 

 sidering the list of the more important commercial fibers known 

 to our market. The list is not a long one, for it barely reaches a 

 total of fifteen species. The fibers of the first rank are the spinning- 

 fibers — namely, cotton, flax, hemp, jute; of the second rank, or cord- 

 age fibers, Sisal, Manila, Sunn and Mauritius hemps, and New Zealand 

 flax; and of the third rank, Tampico, or ixtle, African fiber or pal- 

 metto, coir or cocoanut, piassaba, Mexican whisk, raffia, and Spanish 

 moss, which are used in brush manufacture, in upholstery, and for 

 other rough manufactures. Of these fifteen forms, only cotton, hemp, 

 palmetto, and Spanish moss are produced in the United States in 

 commercial quantity, though flax line has been produced to some 

 extent in the past. Of those not produced in commercial quantity 

 in this country, but which would thrive in cultivation, may be 

 mentioned jute, New Zealand flax, Sisal hemp, cocoanut, and pos- 

 sibly Sunn hemp in subtropical Florida, with a few " substitutes," 

 which will be mentioned hereafter. 



I have neglected to mention in this list the sponge cucumber, a 

 species of Luff a used as a bath sponge, which is imported from Japan 

 in quantity, and which grows in the United States. 



Passing the list of recognized commercial fibers, we come to a 

 large number of species, forms allied to the above, that are either 

 employed locally, chiefly by the natives in the countries where grown, 

 or that would be capable of employment in the world's manufacture 

 were they not inferior to the standard commercial forms at present 

 recognized, and with which they would necessarily compete at a dis- 

 advantage. This list is a long one, for in the single genus Agave, to 

 which belong the plant producing the Sisal hemp of commerce, there 

 are over one hundred species in Mexico alone, more than one half 

 of which would produce good fiber. In our own country it would 

 be possible to enumerate twenty species of plants that are recognized 

 as American weeds, the fibers of which could be employed as hemp, 

 flax, or jute substitutes were these materials unobtainable, besides 

 half as many structural fiber plants similar to the agave, the products 

 of which could be employed as cordage fiber substitutes in the same 

 manner. Many of these uncultivated plants have been known to the 

 aborigines for years, possibly for centuries, as we find their fiber, 

 produced in varied forms of rude manufacture, in ancient tombs or 

 other burial places. 



