34 



POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



In all these industries, whether the fiber cultivated is flax, ramie, 

 or jute, the machine question enters so largely into the problem of 

 their successful establishment that the business must be conducted on 



a large scale. Even in 

 the growth of Sisal hemp 

 in Florida, should it be 

 attempted, the enterprise 

 will only pay when the 

 necessary mill plant for 

 extracting the fiber is 

 able to draw upon a culti- 

 vated area of five hun- 

 dred acres. In other 

 words, the small farmer 

 can never become a fiber 

 producer independently, 

 but must represent a sin- 

 gle wheel in the com- 

 bination. 



The subject is a vast 

 one, and, while I have 

 been able to set forth the 

 importance of these in- 

 dustries as new sources of 

 national prosperity, only 

 an outline has been given 

 of the difficulties which 

 are factors in the indus- 

 trial problem. Summing 

 up the points of van- 

 tage, the market is al- 



The Luffa, or Sponge Cucumber. ready assured; through 



years of study and ex- 

 periment we are beginning to better understand the particular con- 

 ditions that influence success or failure in this country; we have the 

 best agricultural implements in the world, and American inventive 

 genius will be able, doubtless, in time, to perfect the new mechanical 

 devices which are so essential to economical production; our farmers 

 are intelligent and industrious, and need only the promise of a fair 

 return for their labor to enter heart and sonl into this work. 



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