28 Vegetahle Materials for Cordage, ^c. 



ed up for market. Dr. Buchanan gives a somewhat different mode 

 of treating the plant to procure the fibre, which it is unnecessary to 

 copy. (Travels, Vol, i. p. 227.) The apparatus commonly used 

 in the United States to break and prepare hemp, would answer much 

 better than any Indian mode. The twine made in India from the sun- 

 plant, has long been an article of regular importation into the United 

 States, and is much used when a strong ligature is not required. It 

 is also extensively employed for fishing seines ; for although it is 

 weaker when dry, than the twine from flax, yet is stronger than it, 

 when wet ; on this account, and being but half the price of flax twine, 

 it is in great demand by the Delaware fishermen, as one of them re- 

 cently informed me.'^ The twine-fibre is also the material from 

 which the well known gunny bags are made, as I have long since 

 stated,! and has been converted into strong demy, crown and car- 

 tridge paper : a specimen of the first I received from the late Dr. 

 Lettsom of London, in the year 1803, J and still possess it. The 

 value of the sun-plant induced me to recommend the importation of 

 the seeds for sowing in Louisiana, and I repeat the recommendation. 

 The climate of Florida would be equally congenial to it, and from 

 the greater ease with which its filamentous fibre is separated, than 

 hemp, it would doubtless hecome a favorite with the cultivators. 

 Paper makers will find it profitable to work up the worn gunny bags 

 and old sun cordage, for coarse strong wrapping paper. The speci- 

 men I have of the paper is much stronger than that made from straw.<§v 



* Dr. Raxburgh gives the results of several hundred experiments, to show the 

 comparative strength of numerous vegetable fibres used in India for cordage and 

 twine, under the following circumstances. 1. In a fresh state ; 2. dry ; 3. wet with 

 fresh water; 4. tanned; 5. tarred; 6. after one hundred and sixteen days macera- 

 tioii in fresh water. The result was, that tan in general added strength, while tar, 

 although it preserved cordage, diminished its strength ; and in no instance was 

 this more clearly evinced, than in the common hemp, (Cannabis) cultivated in Ben- 

 gal. Wetting cords with fresh water, invariably increased their strength greatly. 

 A dry cord of sun-plant sail twine broke with one hundred and forty eight pounds 

 weight, but required seventy four pounds more, or a weight of two hundred and 

 twenty two pounds to break it when wet with fresh water. Thirty two pounds more 

 were required to break a hempen cord when wet, than to break another cord of the 

 same size when dry. 



i Domestic Encyclopedia, article " Gunny bag," 1803. 



i Domestic Encyclopedia, article " Paper," 1803. 



§ The foreman of a rope walk, in which the fibre of the sun-plant is largely work- 

 ed up, informed me, that when hackled " closely," for twine or lines, it would not 

 yield more than one half «'• tier," that is, long hemp. The vest was tow, and only fit 



