THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



33 



THE GROWTH OF FIBROUS PLANTS IN INDIA, 



TLo old provei-b of " Give a «log a bad name" would 

 seem siill to be in full force. There have been few more 

 abused personages than the East India officials. 

 Every shortcoming — every failure — every abuse has 

 been attributed to their neglect or misrule. Persecution, 

 torture, grindinir taxation, neglect of the resources of 

 the country — want of fixity of land-tenure, absence of 

 roads, droughts — mutiny, panics — every calamity and 

 misfortune has been laid to their charge. No doubt 

 where there is smoke there is fire, and in the torrent 

 of obloquy there will be some shadow of truth. Still 

 the abuse is carried beyond legitimate bounds ; and 

 now that a new rule is inaugurated, the sins of omis- 

 sion and commission of John Company should be per- 

 mitted to die with the old East Indian Government. 



Any one who will take the trouble to look calmly 

 into the matter will find that the Indian Government 

 have not after all been so utterly indifferent to the best 

 iutere.-its of India as they arc commonly represented. 

 Public works have been carried outasextensively as the 

 finances and the wide extent of country to be served 

 would permit. Of this the network of railways now 

 forming of 5,000 miles, and already in successful opera- 

 tion f )r 600 or 700 miles, with the existing canals and 

 irrigation works, are sufficient evidences. So with tlie 

 experiiUental cotton cultivation, tea culture, and other 

 industries set on foot in the presidencies and the local 

 exhibitions of native products. 



The blue books on cotton cultivation in India, the 

 official works of Dr. Roxburgh, Dr. Royle, and of his 

 succef.sor Dr. Watson, are further evidences of the zeal 

 of the India House in the matter of developing the in- 

 dustrial resources of India. And yet whenever there 

 is a deficiency felt of cotton, flax, wool, or some other 

 great staple of commerce, immediately the manufac- 

 turers fall foul lustily of the Indian Government, and 

 blame them as the cause of the deficiency. Of the tiuth 

 of these observations, there was a practical instance 

 afforded at a recent meeting of tlie Society of Arts- 

 The subject of the deficiency in the supply of fibres to 

 meet the wants of manufacturers has long occupied at- 

 tention, and has been frequently alluded to in our 

 columns. The Council of India, desirous of contri- 

 buting all the information possible on this diffuse 

 subject, instructed their official reporter on products, 

 Dr. Watson, to prepare a paper on the subject. In 

 conjunction with the Society of Arts, at an outlay of 

 several hundred pounds for chemical experiments, 

 maps, diagrams, specimens, wood-cuts, microscopic 

 examinations, printing, &c., a most valuable essay 

 was prepared and read to the members and visitors of 

 the Society of Arts at one of their ordinary meetings, 

 Mr. Thomas Byz!ey, M.P., presiding. And yet even all 

 this could not satisfy the querulous and bigoted, for 

 even here the old charges of neglect and mismanage- 

 ment were revived. It is not with these, however, we 



desire to deal, but rather to give an abstract of the 

 paper, which had many points of special interest 

 that will command for it extensive circulation, both 

 at home and abroad. After treating firstly of the bo- 

 tanical classification of the fibre-yielding plants into 

 endogens and exogens, and afi'ording practical illustra- 

 tions of these. Dr. Watson proceeded to remark upon 

 the mode of separating thern from the parent stem. 

 " He had," he stated, " in his possession no less than 

 180 specifications of patents bearing upon this impor- 

 tant subject. But to understand," he observed, "the 

 process of cleaning Indian fibres, it must be remem- 

 bered that we have to deal with a climate in which fer- 

 mentation and putrefaction readily succeed each other 

 in the freshly-cut plant. A forgetfulness of this fact 

 has acted injuriously upon their value. The common 

 practice has been to steep the plant in water, until the 

 sap is decomposed. Labour is thus saved ; but in 

 India the fibres are often irreparably discoloured and 

 weakened for manufacturing purposes. It is therefore 

 obvious that steeping, if cmployeif, should be for the pur- 

 pose of loosening and dissolving the binding constituents 

 of the plant." He then went very fully into a descrip- 

 tion of soil and climate, and the analyses of soils sub- 

 mitted were most extensive and valuable, furming an 

 admirable and sure guide to the cultivator, whetlier in 

 Europe or the East, " Nature has, with very few ex- 

 ceptions, provided every plant with fibrous materials, 

 which, when separated, may be turned to some ac- 

 count; but it is not every plant which v. ill pay the ex- 

 pense of such manipulation by affording a marketable 

 commodity. No doubt numbei-less plants have, in the 

 lapse of ages, been tried and found wantin^'^, not having 

 stood the test of experience. Looking at the matter 

 from this point of view, those fibrous substances which 

 have either been employed for the longest period, and 

 which are now most commonly in use, are likely to 

 be exactly those most worthy of attention. Of this 

 kind are flax and cotton, which have been employed 

 from the earliest ages " 



And first with regard to flax. At present it is al- 

 most entirely cultivated in India for the sake of its 

 seed. India furnishes a very large proportion of the 

 supply of this seed to the United Kingdom. The quan- 

 tity imported amounts to 97,000 tons. 



But besides the exports of lin.seed, it is largely used by 

 the natives. These facts, therefore, indicate the exist- 

 ence of a wide-spread cultivation of flax for at least 

 one purpose. But, although grown chiefly for seed, 

 the capability of certain parts of India to furnish fibre 

 of the most valuable description has at last begun to be 

 fully appreciated, and this partly through the attention 

 which the subject has received from the Indian Govern- 

 ment, partly through the report of the local agricultural 

 societies, and partly through individual efibrts. As the 

 declared object has been the cultivation of seed, the 



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