298 AGRICULTURE ON THE PACIFIC SLOPE 



Cotton, which, unlike flax, is the fiber that surrounds the 

 seed, also grows well in the valleys of California when irri- 

 gated, and has a particularly fine, long, and strong fiber. 

 But it was found that it cost so much to pick it by hand, 

 as is done in the Cotton states, that it would not pay to grow 

 it. It was tried in the Great Valley over twenty-five years 

 ago. 



Excellent hemp, from Japanese seed, has been grown in 

 Butte County, California, for a number of years. But 

 although largely worked by machinery, it has not paid very 

 well. In Oregon and Washington also hemp does well. 



Our native nettles have a very fine silky fiber, resembling 

 that of ramie; and in olden times nettle cloth was made in 

 Europe for very fine articles of dress. 



Ramie is the finest and silkiest of all plant fibers, and is 

 also very long and strong. The ramie plant, which comes 

 to us from southern China, looks like a nettle, but has no 

 stinging hairs. It grows well in the valleys of California, 

 and will in the southern part make three and even four 

 crops a year. But here again, hand labor in harvesting and 

 in tending the machinery required to get out the clean fiber 

 renders it unprofitable. The fiber used comes mostly from 

 China, where labor is cheap, and is sometimes called " China 

 grass." It serves to make the finest cambric handkerchiefs 

 and sewing thread, and owing to its luster is used to form 

 half (the " web ") of cheap silk goods. 



Silk is raveled from the cocoons spun by the silkworm, 

 originally brought from China; it is therefore an animal 

 fiber, like wool. Silkworms, or rather caterpillars, feed on 

 mulberry leaves, and both the tree and the worm do finely in 

 California, and can be cared for as a home industry by 

 children and women very successfully. But on a large scale 

 it does not pay to raise the worms, because it requires close 



