VEGETABLE FIBERS. 605 



ing business in this country is beginning to enforce a similar necessity, 

 which will ultimately prove more controlling. The drain of*more than 

 twenty million dollars }3er annum for Hax products of foreign countries 

 during the last decade is also a strong argument for the extension of 

 flax production. 



There is no insux^erable obstacle to the supply of all demands for flue 

 linens, tho^.gh the climate of a part of the country is less favorable to the 

 growth of fine fiber than that of the moist climate of Ireland and Holland. 

 Northern New England, New York, the lake region, and especially 

 Oregon and Washington Territory furnish suitable climatic conditions. 

 The labor question is one requiring time for its solution. With much 

 diversity of cropping, so frequent calls to apparently more profitable 

 rural employment, there is little opportunity here for development of 

 skill which exists in so high a degree in certain flax-gTowing districts 

 of Europe. Graually, as population crowds and labor competes, the 

 growth and mami)ulation of fine flax fiber will command the economic 

 faculty and inventive genius which give the American laborer an ad- 

 vantage in every serious eftbrt to compete with the skilled and low- 

 priced labor of Europe. The time will be quite sure to come when the 

 production of fine fiber will be unmensely enlarged, and it would be wise 

 in the national government to foster and encourage such development. 



Meanwhile the cultivation for seed, for oil and cake, though subject 

 to fluctuation, to changes from one district to another, is extended and 

 must continue such extension. There is one obstacle to success, which 

 alone prevents an immediate and rapid growth — a large portion of the 

 flax-straw is now wasted. Here and there a mill for the manufacture 

 of tow takes all that is offered in the neighborhood, while large areas 

 have no mills within hauling distance. It is needed for paper stock, for 

 upholstering uses, and especially for baling of wool and cotton, and 

 bagging for grain. It is understood that nearly a million cotton bales 

 are enveloped in flax bagging, of the more than five millions grown and 

 packed, the remainder being mostly made in this country from the fibej 

 of jute butts, a foreign product that drives the native material from the 

 field. Ten years ago the importation of this material was 17,549 tons ; 

 now 69,590 tons. Then the importation of cloth for bagging was 

 11,486,005 pounds ; now but 2,856,195 pounds. The cause is apparent. The 

 manufacturers of jute bagging at the sea-ports have large capital, or- 

 ganization, and all facilities, with the low duty of $6 per ton, little more 

 than one-fourth of a cent per pound, and a lower price for material 

 than ten years ago, which was last year less than 3 cents per pound. 

 So the interior flax mills are driven to the wall. They say, " Give us a 

 higher duty on jute butts, and we will furnish all the bagging for cot- 

 ton, and wool, and grain, from material which is now wasted, and we 

 will do it on an enlarged scale, at the price which the jute bagging now 

 commands." This would lead to a great increase in area of flax, would 

 make prosperous a prominent agricultural industry, and prove a souice 

 of wealth to the western farmer, who claims that he is entitled to a little 

 protection as well as the manufacturer. 



On the other hand, the jute manufacturer claims that it is the true 

 national economy to admit raw material duty free, and so encourage the 

 manufacture of bagging instead of importing that made by foreign 

 labor. 



The western flax miller and flax grower replies, that if it is good to 

 give employment to American labor in manufacturing bagging; it is 

 better still to give further employment to American labor in growing 

 the raw material. 



