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FIBER-PRODUCING PLANTS 



grading cotton, and many of our expert cotton buyers seem to be 

 unable to give good reasons for their judgment. The principal 

 grades usually recognized are as follows: fair, middling fair, good 

 middling, middling, low middling, good ordinary, and ordinary. 

 All grades above the middling grade are designated as full grades. 

 The price per pound may vary from five to fifteen cents or higher 

 according to the season of the year and the grade of the cotton. 



Cotton Products. Some of the valuable products of cotton are 

 the lint, the seed, oil, oil cake, cotton-seed meal, and hulls. A 



ton of seed will yield forty 

 pounds of lint, eight hundred 

 pounds of hulls, eight hun- 

 dred pounds of meal, and 

 forty gallons of oil. From 

 the lint is made cotton cloth 

 and thread. 



Flax. Flax has been cul- 

 tivated from the very earli- 

 est times, and it is said 

 that the ancient Hebrews 

 and Egyptians wore clothing 

 made from its fiber. The 

 variety generally used in 

 this country is derived from 

 a small annual plant that is 

 found in some of the places 

 bordering on the Mediter- 

 ranean Sea. Belgium and 

 Russia raise vast quantities 

 of flax in the Old World, while 

 the United States and Argen- 

 tina lead all countries in its 

 production on this continent. 



Flax plant. The principal flax-producing 



States incur own country are North Dakota, South Dakota, Minne- 

 sota, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Washington. Flax will usually 

 grow where wheat will grow successfully, but it thrives best in 

 cool, moist climates and on well-tilled sandy loams. 



