332 DICKSON ON THE LABOUR AND THE 



think it may become such another success as the alpaca wool 

 trade is. 



*' The general application of your process, whereby a few 

 hours is made to do the work of days on hemp, &c., also 

 excited much admiration. Thanking you for the loan of 

 this series of samples, and expressing the pleasure I shall have, 

 to know that the 'new fibre' is working its way into suc- 

 cessful competition with the old ones, 



" I am, dear sir, yours faithfully, 

 (Signed.) "GEO. ROWE. 



J. Hill Dickson, Esq." 



The rev. gentleman again requested colonized specimens 

 for his lecture, in the month of February last, 1864, which I 

 sent him. J.H.D. 



SUPPLY OF MATERIAL. 



As the question of a regular supply of these new materials 

 for spinning and manufacturing has been asked by the most 

 extensive firms in Manchester, Leeds, Bradford, and Halifax, 

 where the patentee exhibited the specimens in every stage of 

 preparation, up to yarns and cloth, and all inquirers appeared 

 to doubt the certainty of a supply being had, and consequently 

 refused to aid, in an y way, the patentee in his views of intro- 

 ducing, through a public company, an additional supply of 

 raw materials for our manufacturers ; and as Sir Win. 

 Hooker did, at the request of Mr. Dickson, forward to him, 

 from the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, a large assortment of 

 East and West Indian fibre- producing plants to prepare and 

 finish for the Leeds Exhibition in the autumn of 1858, and 

 has exhibited in the museum at Kew specimens of Mr. 

 Dickson's prepared fibres, and yarns, and cloth made from 

 them, and has written to him with most valuable information 

 on the subject of a supply from Jamaica, where (as Sir 

 William's letters prove) the material may be had in 



