FIBER PLANTS 187 



the enterprise was abandoned. A large percentage of the 

 woven vegetable fiber mats used in the United States are made 

 from this plant. 



In experiments at the Hawaii Experiment Station it was 

 found that the crop required 6 to 7 months from planting to 

 harvest. After one cutting a rattoon crop developed within 

 5 months. The second crop, however, was shorter than the 

 first crop. The yield in these experiments was about 5 tons 

 per acre and the stems varied in length from 36 to 60 inches. 

 Experiments with the Chinese mat rush in the Southern States 

 showed that this crop would thrive well in the brackish marshes 

 along the coast but, as already explained, the expense of 

 manipulating the material by hand has discouraged the estab- 

 lishment of the matting industry in this country. C. tegetum, 

 a closely related species, is used in the manufacture of floor 

 matting in Calcutta and C. unitans furnishes material for use 

 in coarse, cheap matting in Japan. 



Bingo-i mat rush (Juncus effusus) is a rush extensively 

 grown in Japan. It attains a height of 4 or 5 feet and, like 

 the Chinese matting sedge, thrives in water along the coast, 

 enduring even the brackish water. The rush is shorter than 

 the Chinese mat plant ; the stems are cut by hand when mature, 

 and quickly dried. The bingo-i mat rush is not split for manu- 

 facturing purposes. In Japan it is used for making the most 

 expensive floor mats of that country. The plant has been 

 found to thrive in Hawaii and various other countries into 

 which it has been introduced but no commercial industry in 

 connection with it has been developed outside of Japan. 



PLANTS USED FOR PAPER, HATS, UTENSILS, AND OTHER 

 PURPOSES 



A large number of plants in tropical countries have been 

 found useful as a source of material for tying, for weaving 

 baskets and various household utensils, and for the manu- 

 facture of hats and coarse garments. Most of these plants 



