128 SUBSTITUTES FOK COTTON AND NEW FIBRES. 



the best substitutes for cotton yet brought before the public. The article, of 

 which I enclose a sample for your inspection, can be procured in un- 

 limited quantity and at a moderate cost ; four or five crops can, I believe, 

 be produced annually. It has been known to some few scientific gentle- 

 men for years, and their surprise is that it has never yet been brought 

 into general use by our spinners. 



" A sample of this same kind of fibre was forwarded by Dr. Bucha- 

 nan to the India House in the year 1811 ; the court of Directors handed 

 it over to a London firm, and they reported that a thread spun of this 

 fibre bore 252 lbs., whereas one of Russian hemp of the same thickness 

 broke at 82 lbs. Some of the finest materials are made in China from a 

 species of this fibre. The Society of Arts in 1814 awarded a silver 

 medal to Captain S. Cotton, then a director of the East India Company, 

 for the introduction of this fibre. It grows spontaneously in Assam, 

 Burrnah, Chittagong, Nepaul, the islands of Sumatra, Java, and Borneo, 

 the Malayan Peninsida, Yunan Provinces, Siam, Cambodia, and also in 

 the western parts of China ; and I have no doubt whatever but that it 

 could (like many other fibres) be brought into this country, and sold to 

 a very large extent. 



" There are numbers of other fibres which could be advantageously 

 used if spinners and others would only take the matter spiritedly in 

 hand ; but it is only since the extraordinary rise in the price of cotton 

 that attention has been drawn to this very important subject. 



" The late Dr. Forbes Royle and Mr. P. L. Simmonds have worked 

 hard in endeavouring to bring undeveloped fibrous substances before the 

 notice of the manufacturers of this country, but there is such apathy on 

 their part to try any article foreign to their regular trade that the suc- 

 cessful introduction of anything new becomes almost an impossibility, 

 and it is only in such times as the present that there is a chance of 

 doing so. 



" No one knows the difficulty except those who have experienced it, 

 in the introduction of a new article, and very frequently losses are made 

 by the first adventurer, although the article he imports, if it were fairly 

 tried, would be found a good and useful one ; for instance, I have known 

 several firms who have been induced to make small tiial shipments to 

 this country, which, on arrival, are placed in the hands of a broker and 

 advertised for sale on the London and Liverpool markets, but the novelty 

 of appearance or strangeness of name under which they are denominated 

 not being known by a single party who sees the articles or reads the 

 advertisement, not a bid is made for them, they are put on one side and 

 forgotten, perhaps never to be heard of again until the dock company or 

 wharfingers bring them to a ' rummage sale ' to pay rent and charges, 

 when, if they cannot be sold, they are destroyed — the merchant virtually 

 abandoning the ownership, and taking care how he meddles with a new 

 article of commerce again. 



" I trust the present very high price of cotton will induce our lnanu- 



