336 [Assembly 



India possesses various fibres from several fast-growing plants, 

 some deficient in strength, others remarkable for a coarse, harsh 

 texture, and not remarkable for strength. It has been inferred 

 by some intelligent men, that the heat and moisture of East Indian 

 climate are unfavorable to the production of good fibres. But 

 India grows plants in some of its barren, dry plains, whose fibre 

 is as strong as any in the world, and contains a vast number of 

 such plants. 



In 1850, Calcutta exported about 600,000 lbs. of sunn-hemp; 

 700,000 lbs. of jute; nearly 9,000,000 gunny bags, &c., &c. 

 (India maunds are 82 lbs. each.) 



Fibres of liliaceous plants were examined having very showy 

 flowers; mere pressure caused the fibres to appear very white, of 

 great beauty for paper. By the names of Moorghae and Marool 

 it is used all over India, on the coasts of Coromandel, Malabar, 

 and Bengal. Tried in Calcutta, ropes of it broke at 137, while 

 Manilla liemp broke at 138 lbs. 



The Agave Americana and Agave vivipara have strong fibre, 

 Humboldt mentions a bridge 131 feet long, whose ground work 

 was formed of ropes of Agave Americana. The fibre from the 

 leaf of the pine apple is very strong. Beautiful cloths made of 

 it were exhibited in the Crystal Palace, in London, 1851, from the 

 Phillipine Islands. The natives gum the ends of fibres together 

 for a time, not (as an old writer said,) by invisible knots. Pine 

 apple fibre is better for making muslins than ropes. 



Banana plants are cut down annually to have fruit from a new 

 growth. Each stem has about four pounds weight of fibre in it, 

 capable of being wrought into all sarts of labrics, coarse and fine. 

 It is strong. The fine fabrics made of it are extremely elegant. 

 It makes good paper and is fit to make ropes. Each pine apple 

 plant yields about three pounds weight of fibre, or about 9,000 

 pounds an acre, at least. The meanest man in the tropics has a 

 plantain in front of his hovel, the stem of which is of no use for 

 fuel or lor manure. The fibre is easily got by passing the stem 

 through rollers. Tlie fibre, like tliat of the Manilla hemp, was 

 of the genus Musa. Drawing and packing paper, and fine hand- 



