STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY, 277 



under climatic influences unfriendly to cotton. Both flax and hemp, 

 however, demand one of the pre-requisites of climate which must be had 

 by the cotton plant — moisture. But cotton requires a high temperature 

 ■with moisture, while flax and hemp succeed where the mercury falls so 

 low that the cotton plant will have a yellow sickl}'- hue. 



Flax in Ireland and Germany, and hemp in Kentucky, Missouri, and 

 the empire of Kussia, succeed best on moist, alluvial soils, near large 

 bodies of water, where there is a moderately low temperature during the 

 night. Alluvial soils, and the requisite low temperature, are obtainable 

 in large districts on the Pacific coast, and both flax and hemp make a 

 large growth of straw wherever cultivated upon them. From this it 

 might be inferred that both of these textiles could be grown iu the 

 Pacific States to supply the local demand, and even for export. 



The production of the straw of flax and hemp is only a small part of 

 the cost of the textile, and is the least difficult labor in the whole enter- 

 prise. The most critical operation is the rotting process. This not only 

 requires skill and judgment, but for its thorough and perfect accomplish- 

 ment we must have the aid of regular copious dews, or the facilities to 

 rot it in artificial tanks. The process of hackling so as to separate the 

 fibre from the haulm or woody parts, though tedious, is not afl'ected by 

 climatic influences. In the Pacific States there are no dews of certain 

 regularity, such as would accomplish the rotting of the woody parts of 

 flax and hemp sufficiently to enable the separation of the fibre; nor are 

 the facilities for water-rotting to be had except in limited supply, contig- 

 uous to the localities where the textiles would be grown. Indeed, the 

 oiil}'- favorable situations for growing the straw, having facilities for 

 water-rotting at hand, are the table lands on the San Joaquin and\Sacra- 

 mento rivers; but these, owing to frequent inundations, would render the 

 investment of capital in their cultivation precarious, until some general 

 and costly system of reclamation shall have been adopted. 



The absence of dews, and the inconvenience of providing the means 

 to water-rot the straw, are only incidental obstacles in the way of suc- 

 cess in flax and hemp husbandry in tlie Pacific States. The real, insupe- 

 rable difficulty in the way to success will be found in the fact that neither 

 flax nor hemp has a textile fibre of any value when grown in the dry 

 brazen climate of the Pacific slope. Noticing the brittleness of some 

 green hemp which I found growing wild along the mining canals of El 

 Dorado County, I was led into an inquiry as to the character of the 

 fibre on flax, hemp, and a large variety of plants indigenous to the 

 country, whose related species have a fibrous tendency in climates where 

 there are periodical rains, and, to my surprise, I found the same indispo- 

 sition to clothe itself with a fibrous cuticle prevailing among all the vege- 

 table tribes. 



It is remai'kable how quick the annuals disappear in California after 

 the first heavy rains in the fall. A swamp of mustard which, before the 

 rain, will be found impassible even to the wild Spanish horses and cattle, 

 no sooner becomes soaked by the first showers in the fall than the tree- 

 like stems snap to the merest gusts of wind, and what was shortly before 

 an impassible barrier to man and beast, will lie prostrate, rapidly decay- 

 ing into debris to nourish the young vegetation which immediately shoots 

 up to take its place. This is but the condition of all the annuals, and 

 especially so with the grasses, and the straw of the cereals. All vegeta- 

 ble substances in this climate have a pronenessto become brittle towards 

 maturity, and even the basket willow loses its pliability; and all other 

 varieties of woods, whether indigenous or transplanted from other cli- 



