194 USEFUL FIBER PLANTS OF THE WORLD. 



Hibiscus esculentus. Okra. 



Syn. Abelmo8chu8 esculentus. 



Common and NATIVE names. — Okra, gumbo of Louisiana, gombo (Fr.) ; quimbombo 

 (Span.); bamiyah (Pers.); bamiya (Arab.); bhindi (Hind.); baudaka (Ceyl.), 

 and many others. 



The plant is a native of the West Indies, but cultivation has introduced it to all 

 tropical and subtropical countries. It flourishes throughout the Southern United 

 States, where it is grown for its pods, which form a useful article in the domestic 

 economy. It is also cultivated in South American countries, as well as in countries of 

 the Old World, the French estimating it highly as a food plant. In France it is 

 known as gombo, and it is the " gumbo" of Louisiana, which is employed in a num- 

 ber of Creole dishes, the sliced pods often being used to thicken the soup known as 

 "gumbo" or "chicken gumbo." During the late civil war, when the Southern States 

 were cut off from communication from the rest of the world by a rigidly enforced 

 blockade, coffee became very scarce and difficult to obtain. During this time many 

 of the people of the Southern States, and especially the poorer classes, utilized the 

 seed of the okra plant by either mixing with coffee or using it alone. They found 

 the seed thus prepared a very fair sustitute for coffee. 



A few years ago okra attracted considerable attention as a possible fiber for South- 

 ern cultivation to replace jute in the manufacture of " Cotton bagging ; " a large cor- 

 respondence with the Department resulted, and many articles on the subject appeared 

 in the newspapers of the day. As is frequently the case, however, the value of the 

 plant and the ease of its cultivation for fiber were very much overrated, and subse- 

 quent experiments did not substantiate the claims made for the plant. 



Bast Fiber. — In color okra fiber is as white as New Zealand flax, much lighter 

 than jute as usually prepared for export, but more brittle and showing less strength. 

 The filaments are smooth and lustrous and are tolerably regular. " The fiber is long 

 and silky and generally strong and pliant. When well prepared, as in portions of 

 India, it is adapted for the manufacture of rope, twine, sacking, and paper. In Ben- 

 gal its fiber is reputed harsh and brittle, owing doubtless to improper treatment, and 

 it is but little manufactured there. In Dacca and Mymensing it is used to adulterate 

 jute. It resembles hemp, and under this name is exported to the amount of a few 

 thousand hundredweight yearly. In France the manufacture of paper from this 

 fiber is the subject of a patent; the fiber receives only mechanical treatment and 

 affords a paper called banda, said to be equal to that made from pure rags." (Spon. ) 



Dr. Roxburgh experimented with okra many years ago in India, and made repeated 

 tests of the strength of the fiber. In preparing the material for these tests, the stems 

 were cut when the seed was ripe, and were steeped a few days before preparing. 

 His tests, compared with hemp and jute, are thus recorded : The okra fiber, dry (from 

 India), broke with a strain of 79 pounds; wet, 95 pounds; jute (Corchorus olitoriua), 

 dry, 113 pounds; wet, 125 pounds; hemp (Bengal), dry, 158 pounds; wet, 190 pounds. 

 Hibiscus cannabinus in the same test gave, dry, 115 pounds; wet, 133 pounds. Other 

 species of Hibiscus gave as follows: H. sabdariffa, dry, 95 pounds; wet, 117 pounds, 

 H. strictus (from the Mollucas), dry, 104 pounds; wet, 115 pounds; and, H. furcatus, 

 dry and wet. 89 and 92 pounds, respectively. It will be seen by these tests that okra 

 fiber is not only inferior to that from other species of mallows, but is inferior to jute, 

 and not half as strong as hemp. 



Cultivation. — The effort to bring okra into cultivation in the United States as a 

 fiber plant began about 1890. A bagging and cordage company of Fort Worth, Tex., 

 became interested in the fiber, and issued a circular entitled A Word to Farmers, 

 which contained a lengthy account of the production of the liber and its uses. It 

 was hoped to make the culture of the fiber and its manufacture into bagging a suc- 

 cess "in order to give a substitute for jute that would enable the farmers of the South 

 to avoid paying tribute to the 'jute trust.' " The company named in the circular 

 offered to sell seed to the farmers at cost and purchase all the product " that could 

 be carted to the mill." The Department carried on a lengthy correspondence with 



