COTTON STALK HEMP. 247 



SECTION XIV. COTTON STALK HEMP. 



From Hie Madison Family Visitor. 



Our readers will be interested in the extract which follows, 

 from a letter of Col. John B. Walker, to the Editor of this 

 paper, under date New Orleans, Nov. llth. The Cotton 

 Stalk Hemp promises to be an article of quite considerable 

 importance. 



'' I went yesterday with Gen. Gordon and Lieut. Governor 

 Horton, of Texas, to see the Cotton Harvest Gatherer, and 

 the Cotton Stalk Hemp. The first article is intended to pick 

 cotton from the boll and put it in a bag. This I regard as 

 worthless not a humbug, because it will not likely deceive 

 any one but the inventor : farmers will not be caught with it. 

 The Cotton Stalk Hemp is, in my opinion, worthy of the 

 highest consideration. It has the color of the Gunny or East 

 India bagging, and the fibre is as strong as that of the hemp. 

 It is prepared by knocking off the lateral limbs of the cotton 

 stalk, then cutting down the stalk and burying it in a plough 

 furrow in the field, where it lies covered up for fifteen days. 

 It is then taken up and broken, as you break hemp, and this 

 clears it of the woody fibre, and it is fit for spinning in any 

 way, either by machinery or by hand. Again, it is better 

 prepared by sowing the cotton broadcast and thickly ; this 

 causes the stalk to run up in height and clear of lateral limbs, 

 more nearly resembling the hemp weed. 



"The discoverer of this process of making cotton stalk hemp 

 is a Frenchman, of Baton Rouge, by the name of John Blanc. 

 He has been four years engaged in experiments, and has now 

 just obtained his patent right from the Patent Office. 



" I was happy to meet our old county friend, Mr. Wm. J. 

 Vasoon, at the place where this cotton stalk hemp is exhibited, 



