LUTHER BURBANK 



Flax in America is usually grown for the seed 

 only, as the high cost of labor makes competition 

 with the foreign product difficult. 



Contrariwise the hemp plant (Cannabis sativa), 

 a plant belonging to the mulberry family and dis- 

 tantly related to the hop, which resembles the flax 

 only in the fact that it produces a tough and 

 resistant fiber that may be used for textile pur- 

 poses, is cultivated in this country exclusively for 

 the fiber, its seed being almost altogether 

 neglected. Yet the seed of this plant is prized in 

 other countries for its oil, and its neglect here 

 illustrates the same principle of wasteful use of 

 our agricultural resources. 



Hemp, however, is not very extensively grown, 

 being chiefly confined to regions of the bluegrass 

 country centering about Kentucky and Tennessee. 

 Its fiber is coarse, and is used chiefly for making 

 cordage and warp for carpets. At best the culti- 

 vation of hemp does not constitute an important 

 industry in the general scale of American agricul- 

 ture. 



Cotton For Seed and Fiber 



But when we turn to the third textile plant, 

 cotton, we have to do with an industry that ranks 

 second only to the cultivation of Indian corn. 



And here there is a story of waste that assumes 

 more significant proportions. For the cotton plant 



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