510 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OP AGRICULTURE. 



As I have stated, the plant gTows readily in any rich soil suitable for 

 com or i)otatoes. Its seed is so tenacious of vitality that frosts do not 

 injure it, while it sows itself and even encroaches, year by year, upon 

 contiguous land to that upon which the plants are cultivated. Viewed as a 

 farm- weed merely, this habit makes it troublesome, though it establishes 

 the fact of ready cultivation. This point being settled, the only remain- 

 ing question relates to the i)reparatiou of the fiber, which must be cheaply 

 accomplished, and in a manner that will gi^e the least trouble to the 

 farmer, as there are few who would go to, the trouble or expense of pre- 

 ' paring pools for steeping the crude product, as is the custom with jute 

 in India or flax in other countries. Sir. Brown mentions in a recent re- 

 port (see appendix, Article I) that, from experiments made in 1879, it is 

 thought that the steeping or rotting process can be dispensed with en- 

 tirely, and that the labor expended upon this crop by the farmer will be 

 no greater than attends the growth of wheat or rye. 



Professor Waterhouse, of Washington University, Saint Louis — an au- 

 thority upon all questions i)ertaining to jute and allied fibers — writes 

 that, in his opinion, the cultivation of the Ahutilon avicennce for its fiber 

 is susceptible of development into a source of great wealth to the coun- 

 try. In reply to a request for recent facts touching its usefulness as a 

 fiber i)lant, I received from him a manuscript copy of a letter* writ- 

 ten to Mr. Brown upon the same subject, with the privilege of publica- 

 tion. As it contains much interesting and valuable information, I gladly 

 reproduce it entire in the appendix. 



The important question of machiaery for the preparation of this, as 

 well as other vegetable fibers, has received a partial solution in the 

 efforts of Mr. Lefranc, of Philadelphia, and Mr. A. Angell, of Newark, 

 N. J. The Lefranc ramie machine, fully described in the annual report 

 of this department for 1873, is found available for this class of fibers, 

 and during the entire summer of 1870 its inventor was engaged in ex- 

 perimenting with the Abutilon fiber, with a view to discover new methods 

 of treatment. Mr. Lefranc believes that his efforts have resulted in the 

 discovery of " a combined chemical and mechanical process by which 

 the intrinsic and industrial value of jute (Abutilon) can be greatly en- 

 hanced at comparatively small cost. The practical advantage of this 

 refining i)rocess consists in obtaining a vegetable wool, which is so 

 nearly akin to coarse animal wool as to render their union in coarse 

 fabrics advantageous, and for additional possible uses by itself a val- 

 uable substitute." The Angell machine is of quite recent invention, hav- 

 ing been patented September 16, 1879. Mr. S. C. Brown informs me 

 that it does its work in a very satisfactory manner, and he thinks it a 

 valuable invention. He makes the further statement in a recent report 

 that " it has achieved such results as to entitle it to public recognition 

 as being in the line of (Jevices for promoting the fibrous industry." 



A bounty bill to encourage the production and treatment of fibers in 

 the State has passed the legislature and become a law. There is a 

 clause in it which relates to the Abutilon, called "American jute," in the 

 bounty bill. (See appendix.) 



Douglas Hickox, of Springfield, 111,, has had patented an improved 

 process for manufacturing paper from Abutilon. (Issued May 1877.) A 

 mill was started in Springfield previous to the invention of the i^rocess, 

 and several thousand tons of the fiber w^as worked up, but a merchant- 

 able paper could not be obtained. Subsequently the process mentioned 

 above was introduced into the mill, and Abutilon paper was manufact- 

 ured for about eighteen months, after which the fiber was abandoned, 



'Since the above was written it lias appeared in print in the secpwd report of tJie 

 New Jersey hureau of statistics; lahor, and industries. 



