48 LUTHER BURBANK 



Flax in America is usually grown for 

 the seed only, as the high cost of labor 

 makes competition with the foreign product 

 difficult. 



Contrariwise the hemp plant (Cannahis 

 saliva) , a plant belonging to the mulberry family 

 and distantly related to the hop, which resembles 

 the flax only in the fact that it produces a tough 

 and resistant fiber that may be used for textile 

 purposes, is cultivated in this country exclusively 

 for the fiber, its seed being almost altogether 

 neglected. Yet the seed of this plant is prized in 

 other countries for its oil, and its neglect here 

 illustrates the same principle of wasteful use of 

 our agricultural resources. 



Hemp, however, is not very extensively grown, 

 being chiefly confined to regions of the blue-grass 

 country centering about Kentucky and Tennes- 

 see. Its fiber is coarse, and is used chiefly for 

 making cordage and warp for carpets. At best 

 the cultivation of hemp does not constitute an 

 important industry in the general scale of 

 American agriculture. 



COTTON FOR SEED AND FIBER 



But when we turn to the third textile plant, 

 cotton, we have to do with an industry that ranks 

 second only to the cultivation of Indian corn. 



