62 ANNUAL REPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



gratlos have been received from prominent American cotton interests, 

 while prominent members of foreign exchanges who have seen the 

 oflicial types have expressed themselves in terms of high commenda- 

 tion. In no case have the ofhcial types been subjected to hostile 

 criticism. 



Original methods of preparing and preserving these types have been 

 developed, and the integrity of each box is attested by a full-sized 

 photograph of its contents, which is secured in its cover and bears 

 the certificate of the Secretary of Agriculture and the seal of the 

 Department. 



Investigation of the length and strength of cotton fiber, with a 

 view to measuring these qualities more accurately, has been actively 

 prosecuted, and great progress has been made, while the problems 

 of cotton marketing have received further study in the field. A 

 new method of measuring the length of cotton staple by projection, 

 which it is believed will prove of very great value to the cotton 

 industry, has been devised and perfected. 



Paper-plant investigations. — Technological work on crop plants 

 which may be used for making paper has been actively prosecuted 

 during the year and has resolved itself into an investigation of three 

 classes of material: (1) Wastes or by-products of farm crops, such 

 as the stalks of corn and broom corn; the straws of rice, flax, etc.; 

 hemp waste; and bagasse; (2) plants which give promise of being 

 profitably grown expressly for paper-making purposes, such as hemp, 

 esparto, and jute; and (3) wild plants which are locally abundant 

 and possibly suitable, including certain grasses, rushes, sedges, and 

 canes. 



Strikingly favorable results have been obtained from broom-corn 

 stalks, wliicli have been tested in lots up to 3^ tons and found to 

 yield as high as 42 per cent of available fiber, which, when combined 

 with an equal quantity of poplar pulp, produced a good quality of 

 book paper. It can be conservatively stated that this crop by- 

 product is suitable for immediate use in paper maldng: The pulping 

 of cornstalks has not been as satisfactory, but good qualities of paper 

 of different finishes have been produced from numerous varieties 

 of corn. 



FIBER INVESTIGATIONS. 



In the fiber investigations of this Department special attention 

 has been given to hemp, flax, and sisal. The importations of those 

 three fibers during the fiscal year ended June 30, 1910, amounted to 

 119,150 tons, valued at $16,016,416. Hemp grown in 1909 in Wis- 

 consin, in cooperation with the Wisconsin Agricultural Experiment 

 Station, has been retted and broken, and the fiber has been sold to 

 manufacturers at very satisfactory prices. Cooperative experiments 



