FLAX. 103 



The Asdepias, a very extensive family, abound in fibre, but little used as 

 yet. A. tenacissima is a small climbing plant, from which bowstrings have 

 been made that have lasted live years under exposure to the weather. It is 

 held to be fifty per cent, stronger than hemp. A, gigantca, a plant with broad, 

 fleshy leaves, growing in India. Like the common milk-weed of this country, 

 it gives out a milky juice when wounded, which has been used medicinally as 

 an alterative in cutaneous affections. From it sugar is also obtained, and a 

 very good substitute for gutta-percha prepared. It will grow where nothing 

 else can thrive, requiring no culture or water on dry sand. The fibre is ob- 

 tained M'ith some dithculty by peeling by hand and manual manipulation only, 

 water being injurious. It is of imustial fineness and strength, and great value. 



The Chinese make paper of rice straw, young bamboos, and the bark of the 

 mulberry. The agaves, plantain, pine apple, and the straw of the cereals, and 

 husks of maize, are among the many materials useful for paper-making. 



The Esparte, of Spain, or Stij?a tenacissima, is the most sticcessful fibre- 

 producing grass known, assuming a growing commercial importance. It is 

 used for sandals, mats, baskets, ropes, sacks, nets, hurdles for sheep, and paper- 

 making. 



Bruiiiilia syhiestris, the silk grass of British Honduras, grows spoutaneotisly 

 in great profusion. It has soft, green leaves, one and a half to four inches wide, 

 and five to ten feet long, with sharp curved thorns along the edge, the upper 

 side of the leaf soft and pulpy, and under side hard and ligneous. Its annual 

 product has been valued at fifteen millions of dollars. 



Many other plants, possessing fibrous qualities of value, might be named. 

 The domain of nature is filled with fibres, differing greatly in tenacity, light- 

 ness, fineness, and color, and iu other particulars. Their practical value de- 

 pends more upon the facility of separation of fibres than upon ease of culture 

 or amount of product 



SEED OILS. 



The demand for seed oils has rapidly increased of late, notwithstanding tlie 

 vast expansion of the production of petroleum and coal oils, which are to some 

 extent used for the peculiar purposes of linseed oil. 



Our own seed product increased from 502,312 bushels in 1850, 16 611,927 iu 



1860. In the latter year the import was 2,754,060 bushels, which was an 

 average import for the four years preceding 1861, though considerably larger 

 than the average for ten years. The export of foreign seed in that year was 

 but 13,642 bushels, and the domestic export 3,810 bushels, figures too insig- 

 nificant to be taken into the account. Leaving 61,927 bushels for seed, the 

 domestic oil product, at two gallons per bushel, would be 1,100,000 gallons, the 

 imports (being from the British Indies, with the exception of 217 pounds, and 

 rich in oil) at 2 J gallons, 6,196,635 gallons, making a total of 7,296,635 gal- 

 lons of domestic manufacture. Including 402,908 gallons imported, and de- 

 ducting 26,799 gallons exported, there is left for home consumption 7,672,744 

 gallons. 



Since 1860 the supply of seed produced at home has been constantly aug- 

 mentmg, while the imports have dwindled to a small point, 186,347 gallons iu 



1861, and 51,212 gallons iu 1862. The price continued at a moderate figure 

 during 1861 ; in 1862 the domestic product was higher by at least twenty-five 

 per cent. The average price of seed and oil fluctuates greatly from year to year. 

 The official statement of seed exports shows that the average in 1856 and 1861 

 was SI 73 per bushel; in 1859, $1 44; in 1860, SI 40; iu 1855, 81 03. In 

 1862 the returns show but fifteen bushels -were exported, valued at $59. 



The following statement shows the average prices at the place of shipment 

 for exported and imported oils, and for exports of domestic seed during eight 

 years past : g . 



