AGRICULTURAL BOTANY. 243 



On the Preparation of Vegetable Fibrous Substances. 



As the fibres of Indian plants are now beginning to attract the attention of manufacturers, 

 it may be of some use to publish the results of experiments that have been tried to prepare 

 them for the English market, and to turn them to practical account in India. The demand 

 for fibrous substances as substitutes for flax, hemp, silk, cotton, and hair, is now becoming 

 so great that a market cannot be supplied with a sufficiency of these raw materials to keep 

 our large manufactories in full operation. 



As flax and hemp, both substances most urgently called for, and wasted in large quantities 

 in many parts of India, are hardly ever prepared with sufficient care to make them profit- 

 able articles of export, a description of the simplest and most economical methods of clean- 

 ing them may prove of interest to the public. 



The usual process followed in India for preparing fibres of succulent, fleshy plants consists 

 in culling the plants when in full vigor, and burying them in wet sand on the banks of a run- 

 ning stream, or in mud at the edge of a tank, and leaving them there to soak and rot for one, 

 two, or three weeks, according to the temperature of the weather. The plant is then taken 

 out and spread in the sun to dry, after which it is stacked or put up in heaps, and covered 

 with a matting of dry leaves to shelter it from wind or rain. It is afterwards beat with 

 heavy sticks upon the dry, hard ground, and well rubbed between the hands to separate chaff 

 and dust. Another method is to take the soaked plant in bundles, and beat out the pulp and 

 impurities on a flat stone at the edge of a tank or river, in the same way as the washerwomen 

 wash clothes. 



The fibres of the Marool or Sansiviera Zeylanica are prepared by scraping and washing in 

 fresh water soon after the plant is cut. The fibres of the Yercum or Calotropie gigantea 

 are separated by exposing to the sun for three days the fresh-cut stalks of the plant, stripped 

 of the leaves. The bark is then peeled off, and the fibres are picked out with the finger and 

 thumb. The two last processes yield fibres of good quality, but in too small quantity to prove 

 remunerative, except as an employment for children. 



The system of cleaning fibres by rotting is not suited to warm climates, as putrefaction 

 sets in almost as soon as fermentation ; and while one part of a heap of leaves or stalks is 

 beginning to ferment, other parts are brown and stained from putridity, while the central 

 parts remain fresh and unaltered. 



To preserve the color and strength of fibres, all that is necessary is to separate the pulp, 

 bark, or wood, as soon as possible and by the least complicated process. The pulp or juices 

 of plants usually contain mucilage, starch, or gum, which begin to ferment within twenty- 

 four hours after the plant is cut ; and if it be left in water during warm weather, fermentation 

 is completed within two or three days ; in cold climates, it takes two or three weeks to run 

 its course. The result of fermentation being completed is that the sap becomes acid and 

 destroys the strength of the fibre. This is followed by putrefaction, which stains the fibre 

 and makes it brownish, brittle, and like chaff. 



If the plant be exposed to the sun for a day or two after being cut, the sap dries, and the 

 coloring matter stains the fibre, which cannot then be easily separated from the bark, spiral 

 cells, or woody fibre. In some plants this discoloration is green, in others brownish, or dusky- 

 yellow, which cannot be removed by bleaching, as it is a species of natural tanning which 

 occurs in the plant. Such fibres always remain harsh, stiff, and woody, with a tendency to 

 snap on a sudden strain. The plantain fibre is the most liable to this, containing a good 

 deal of tannin, which can only be removed by quickly expressing the juice, and only cutting 

 as much of the plant as can be cleaned in one day. 



The general rules for cleaning the fibres of pulpy plants are — first, to bruise or crush the 

 plant, keeping the juice for a coarse kind of vinegar required in another process. The com- 

 mon native sugar-cane mill, with two perpendicular rollers, a long lever handle, and a chan- 

 nel to convey the juice into some convenient vessel, answers this purpose very well ; the cost 

 of such a mill is about ten rupees. Those who cannot afford to purchase or erect one, but 

 who can command plenty of labor, will require to provide a few long planks and heavy wooden 

 mallets to beat the plant till all the pulp is loosened. When it is in a pulpy mass, it must be 



