The Fibres of the Hawaiian Islands. 



By Leopold G. Blackman, of the Museum Staff. 



The cultivation of fibre-yielding plants lias of late years been 

 one of rapidly increasing importance. The subject has for some 

 time received exhaustive research in the United States where the 

 total annual importation of raw and manufaAured fibrous materials 

 approximates in value the sum of $100,000,000. The demand for 

 many forms of fibre manufadlures, particularly those used in bind- 

 ing, has, it is asserted, always been in excess of the supply, and 

 at the present time is increasing at an extraordinary rate. This, 

 coupled with the decline and deterioration of flax and hemp culture 

 in European countries, has caused a great stimulus to investigation 

 as to the vali>e of new fibres and the possibility of supplying the 

 demand with products of home origin. 



It will be the endeavor of this paper to present briefly a review 

 of various fibres, particularly those of native Hawaiian origin and 

 those of possible introdudlion to these islands. Attention will also 

 be directed to what success has already been achieved in fibre cul- 

 ture in Hawaii and the result given of experiments conducfted at 

 the Museum on the preparation and testing of various kinds. 



It is worthy of note that the most important fibres of today were 

 the staple ones of ancient times. Flax, cotton, hemp, and the host of 

 palms, grasses and reeds of commerce all boast a remote antiquity. 

 It has often been remarked that no new species of domestic animal 

 has been added to our possessions since the dawn of histor}^ and 

 this statement with some limitations may be advanced with respect 

 to fibres. Even the recently introduced Sisal hemp was in use by 

 the Aztecs, and the till late little known China grass was utilized 

 in the Orient so far ago that all record of its origin is forgotten. 

 The earliest fibre which is known to have been cultvated is flax. 

 Fragments of linen fabric have been found among the prehistoric 

 remains of the Swiss Lake-dwellers, a people coeval with the 

 mammoth. The cere cloth used by the ancient Egyptians in the 

 preservation of their dead was linen, and the monuments of this 

 historic people depict the full process of its manufacture. The 



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