FIBER INDUSTRIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 33 



In summarizing the situation in this country, therefore, it will be 

 seen that, out of the hundreds of fibrous plants known to the botanist 

 and to the fiber expert, the textile economist need only consider four 

 or five species and their varieties, all of them supplying well-known 

 commercial products that are regularly quoted in the world's market 

 price current, the cultivation and preparation of which are known 

 quantities. Were the future of new fiber industries in this country 

 to rest upon this simple statement, there would be little need of 

 further effort. The problem, however, is one of economical adapta- 

 tion to conditions not widely understood in the first place, and not 

 altogether within control in the second. 



Twenty flax farmers in a community decide to grow flax for fiber, 

 and two of these farmers are perhaps acquainted with the culture. 

 They go to work each in his own way; ten make a positive failure 

 in cultivation for lack of proper direction, five of the remaining ten 

 fail in retting the straw, and five succeed in turning out as many dif- 

 ferent grades of flax line, only one grade of which may come up to 

 the standard required by the spinners. And all of them will have 

 lost money. If the failure is investigated it will be discovered that 

 the proper seed was not used; in some instances the soil was not 

 adapted to the culture, and old-fashioned ideas prevailed in the prac- 

 tice followed. The straw was not pulled at the proper time, and it 

 was improperly retted. The breaking and scutching were accom- 

 plished in a primitive way, because the farmers could not afford to 

 purchase the necessary machinery, and of course they all lost money, 

 and decided in future to let flax alone. 



But the next year the president of the local bank, the secretary 

 of the town board of trade, and three or four prosperous merchants 

 formed a little company and built a flax mill. A competent super- 

 intendent — perhaps an old country flax-man — was employed, a quan- 

 tity of good seed was imported, and the company contracted with 

 these twenty farmers to grow five, ten, or fifteen acres of flax straw 

 each, under the direction of the old Scotch superintendent. The seed 

 was sold to them to be paid for in product; they were advised regard- 

 ing proper soil and the best practice to follow; they grew good straw, 

 and when it was ready to harvest the company took it off their hands 

 at a stipulated price per ton. The superintendent of the mill assumed 

 all further responsibility, attended to the retting, and worked up the 

 product. Result: several carloads of salable flax fiber shipped to the 

 Eastern market in the winter, the twenty farmers had " money to 

 burn " instead of flax straw, and the company was able to declare a 

 dividend. This is not altogether a supposititious case, and it illus- 

 trates the point that in this day of specialties the fiber industry can 

 only be established by co-operation. 



VOL. LIT. 3 



