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CHAPTER XI 

 FIBRES. 



FEW branches of manufacture have attracted so much at- 

 tention in recent years as the application of new fibres. 

 The numerous uses to which fibres are put will sufficiently 

 explain this ; paramount, of course, must always be that for 

 textile purposes, then for rope and cordage, next as a sub- 

 stitute for bristles in broom and brush-making, and finally 

 for paper-making, which has been treated of under a distinct 

 heading. 



It is, then, for the first three uses that we have now to 

 consider the fibre supply; and in glancing at the subject from 

 its first aspect, mainly as furnishing textiles, we may briefly 

 allude to the cotton supply, which in 1800 was only about 

 600,000 cwt., the increase going on steadily down to our 

 own time, as will be seen from the following statistics : 

 1837 Total imports of raw Cotton ... 3,636,489 cwt. 

 1856 , , ... 9,141,842 



1860 , , ... 12,419,096 



1862 , , ... 4,678,333 



1866 , ... 12,295,803 



1886 , ... 15,187,299 



1887 , ... 15,903,117 



1888 , ... 15,246,408 



1889 ... 17,159,316 



It will be remembered how seriously the American civil war 

 affected the cotton trade in this country, and this is specially 

 marked in the above table. Much larger supplies were at 

 that time drawn from British India, and of the total imports 

 for last year British India supplied 2,438,968 cwt. 



In 1876 a new kind of cotton was introduced to the 

 notice of planters under the name of BAMIA COTTON*. It 

 made its first appearance in Egypt, and attracted a good 



