TWENTY-SECOND ANNUAL MEETING. 



19 



THE MANUFACTURE OF BINDING-TWINE. 



BY PROF. L. E. SAYRE, STATE UNIVERSITY. 



The manufacture of binding-twine is a subject which has presented itself quite 

 forcibly during the past years to the farmers of the State of Kansas. Everyone 

 knows that the farmers have been obliged to pay an unreasonable price for this 

 article, and the question presents itself, is it feasible for those who would help the 

 agricultural industry, to manufacture binding twine near at home, and thus not only 

 probably reduce the price of this article, but encourage the raising of such vegetable 

 material as would furnish a fiber suitable to the same? 



The manufacture of binding-twine, it is presumed, is familiar to all. It may not 

 be amiss, however, to say that the hemp furnishes a fiber sufficiently tenacious for 

 all the purposes of manufacturing binding-twine. It is a product that does well in 

 eastern Kansas, and in the early history of the State yielded handsome returns to 

 the cultivator; but for the want of a home market and the high cost of freighting it 

 to a distant market, it is said to have ceased to yield a profit on its cultivation. It 

 requires a rich soil and heavy manuring, and is an exhausting crop. Yield per acre, 

 10,000 to 20,000 pounds of hemp; cost, about $10 to break and hackle it. 



The oil from the seeds is quite marketable. It has drying properties, though in- 

 ferior to linseed. 



The following table shows the amount raised in the State of Kansas for a few 

 years back: 



The average yield of fiber per acre in the United States is said to be from 700 to 

 1,000 pounds. 



If the subject became a matter of much interest to scientific men, and if their 

 attention were concentrated upon it, doubtless their investigation would lead to the 

 discovery of plants yielding a fiber of a quality sufficient for all the practical pur- 

 poses of the grain-binder, and indigenous to Kansas soil. 



I may remark incidentally, as a matter of interest in connection with this subject 

 that it is said to have been demonstrated that the cotton stalk, which has hitherto 

 been regarded as waste, contains valuable fiber. A lot of the stalks was recently 

 sent from Arkansas to a factory in New York to be operated on in the same man- 

 ner as flax and hemp. There were returned about twenty different grades of fibrous 

 material, from coarse strands of the stalk to the glossy fiber as soft as silk. Per- 

 sons are now engaged in perfecting a machine that will spin the material. The 

 fiber is sufficiently strong to make the best of bagging, as well as cloth as fine as 

 linen. I have no question that the stems of many of our native weeds would be as 

 valuable as the cotton stalk for the same purpose, if they were properly worked up.* 



In former years it was customary for the farmers of this State and elsewhere to 

 bind the wheat, oats, etc., with iron wire, which had the serious disadvantage of be- 

 ing a source of considerable injury to horses and cattle, and to the threshing and 



* It may be known that there has of late been invented a process of working common straw into 

 binding-twine. This bids fair to revolutionize the whole industry. — L. E. S. 



