206 RURAL CALIFORNIA 



one to raise the oil flax known as "California" for 

 both seed and fiber, but this gave birth to no industry, 

 although flax-seed growing for oil-making has con- 

 tinued in varying amounts from year to year. 



Esparto grasses were introduced into California 

 about 1880 in answer to exhortation from a California 

 lady who had observed weaving industries in Italy 

 and claimed that California women should furnish 

 mats, Italian style, for olive pressing. The plants 

 were widely distributed and grew well, but the women 

 were not more disposed to weave baskets than they 

 were to spin flax and it was found that olive presses 

 could work better with American inclosing fabrics 

 than with esparto mats. The same history belongs 

 to New Zealand flax (Phormium) for, although this 

 plant serves an excellent ornamental purpose in many 

 parks and private gardens, no fiber has ever been 

 commercially produced from it. The same is true 

 of sisal, the Yucatan product of Agave species. Cali- 

 fornia "century plants" have attracted much atten- 

 tion by blooming at about one-eighth of the age their 

 common name indicates and recourse to sisal produc- 

 tion has been from time to time agitated but nothing 

 has been realized, although from early days, cordage 

 factories have operated with imported raw materials. 

 Hemp has gone a little farther than cordage plants 

 because, after scattered experiments in earlier years 

 in various localities, there was commercial produc- 

 tion on the lowlands of the Feather and Sacramento 

 rivers but all such undertakings were abandoned 

 about 1905, after shipment of the product to Europe. 



