VEGETABLE FIBERS. 681 



been enumerated above. That hemp is being so utilized by the Eastern 

 manufacturers is a step iu the right direction. What is needed is a 

 steadily increasing suj)ply and demand which shall build up a healthy 

 industry. 



The statement was made this spring, about planting time, that " our 

 people [in Kentucky] are almost wild about hemp." Figures were given 

 showing the prices paid for seed and rent of laud, and it was surmised 

 that the farmers might be " running it into the ground." This is one of 

 the unpleasant phases of liber production — and indeed the same may be 

 said of an^' crop giving an irregular supply and demoralizing legiti- 

 mate cultivation. The price is high; there is little of the product on the 

 market, with a demand for it ; and everybody goes into its cultivation 

 pell-mell. In the mean time the manufacturers look abroad for their 

 supply, buying largely and making contracts ahead ; the new crop comes 

 on, and prices are depressed; the farmer loses money, or at least does 

 not meet with his exijectations, and hemp culture is declared " a delu- 

 sion and a snare." 



While this should deter farmers from rushing into cultivation reck- 

 lessly, growing the fiber because nearly everybody else is growing it, 

 and expects to make a pile of money out of it, it should not prevent 

 those who wish to make fiber production a part of their farm practice 

 from going into its cultivation. Well-grown and carefully prepared 

 fiber will find a market, and as manufacturers become certain of a regu- 

 lar supply there will be an increasing demand. Already there is a pros- 

 pective demand for hemp in the manufacture of twine to supply grain- 

 binding machines, which it is said may tax the productive capacity of 

 two such States as Kentucky and Missouri. A correspondent of the 

 Lexington Gazette, writing upon this new industry, says: 



Iron and wire have advanced eo materially as to make twine mucli cheaper, besides 

 being preferable in other respects. One pound of twine of the required tensile 

 strength for binding grain, say 65 pounds strain, will measure 800 feet to the pound, 

 while wire of the requisite tensile strength will only measure 300 feet to the pound, 

 and thus it will he seen that twine ai 26| cents per pound (it is now 15 cents) is as 

 cheap as wire at 10 cents per pound, and it is likely to be higher. One party iu this 

 city (Lexington) has a contract for sixty tons of twine to be used for binding grain, 

 and some au3 iety is felt to get an adequate supply. Twine binders ai"e coming largely 

 into use, and must eventually supersede the wire binders. 



Although the use of hemp may be largely turned in the future to the 

 manufacture of twine, cordage, and spun goods, it is still claimed by 

 Western bagging-manufacturers that, if sown thick and cheaply con- 

 verted into tow, remunerative prices can always be obtained for a fiber 

 for bagging purposes. The class of hemp tow referred to, compared 

 with jute butts, would command 2i to 3 cents per pound. Our farmers 

 can readily tell whether they can grow it at these figures and make any 

 profit out of it. The statement was made by the Saint Louis Board of 

 Trade a few years ago, that in the Eastern markets Missouri dressed 

 hemp has the preference over that grown iu Kentucky, at the same 

 price, though the latter State with a large and superior crop in 1876 was 

 able to undersell Missouri. 



TARIFF CONSIDERATIONS. 



How will tariff legislation better the prospects of flax culture? At 

 present everything seems to favor the manufacturer. The argument is 

 used that raising the duty would only increase the price of goods of do- 

 mestic manufacture and make competition with foreign goods impossi- 

 ble, as we produce neither an adequate supply nor the requisite quality. 



