DESCRIPTIVE CATALOGUE. 195 



Dr. M. Chambers, who was named in the circular, and was much interested in a 

 machine he was constructing, which, however, was never perfected. A large area 

 was planted in okra near Forth Worth, hut the Department was not able, subse- 

 quently, to learn how much liber was secured, if any, or to obtain samples of either 

 fiber or stalks. Like many other such enterprises, the advantages of the culture 

 were very much overstated, and the ratio of cost of production to yield and value of 

 product doubtless appeared, in actual practice, inversely, compared with the golden 

 promises made at the outset of the experience. 



"In the cultivation of this plant the seeds are thickly sown, on any rich soil, 

 about the beginning of April in the South, and by the beginning of May in the 

 North, in drills 6 inches apart. The seeds can also be sown broadcast, about 20 

 pounds to the acre; but here much care has to be taken to sow as uniformly as pos- 

 sible. In eighty or ninety days the stalks take a rosy color, and without irrigation 

 they will then have attained a height of from 4£ to 5£ feet, while with irrigation dur- 

 ing dry weather they will grow to a length of from 6 to 8 feet and even more. The 

 stalks can then be cut with a mowing machine, having a dropper attached, 2 or 3 

 inches from the ground." (Fremerey .) 



A Florida correspondent states that "the plant will not only grow from the seed 

 almost without cultivation, but in this climate it will rattoon three years, the last 

 crop nearly equal to the first, it being very rarely injured by frost." He places the 

 yield of stalks at 15 tons per acre, though Dr. C. F. Panknin, of Charleston, S. C, 

 who planted a small area in okra obtained results from his carefully conducted 

 experiments as follows : A half acre of stalks was produced, one-half of which, 

 when decorticated by his process, yielded at the rate of 180 pounds of fiber to the 

 acre, the expense being in the neighborhood of $75. The fiber has been used experi- 

 mentally in the manufacture of paper in Alabama. 



From a careful consideration of the subject in all its details, not only as relates to 

 our own but to other countries, and considering the weakness of the fiber compared 

 with jute, I conclude that the cultivation of the okra plant for its fiber can not be 

 made a paying industry in the United States. And this opinion is emphasized by 

 the fact that there are several species of indigenous fiber plants which could be as 

 easily grown and which are superior to jute in strength, while India jute itself will 

 do well in many of the Southern States. For further accounts see Report No. 6, 

 Fiberlnvestigations series, U. S. Dept. Ag. (1894) ; Kew Bull., Oct., 1890; Spon's Enc, 

 Div. Ill; Diet. Ec. Prod. Ind., Vol. IV; U. S. Pat. Rept. (Agricult.), 1859. 



^Specimens. — Field Col. Mus. ; Mus. U. S. Dept. Ag. 



Hibiscus moscheutos. The Swamp Eose Mallow. 



This is one of the commonest of the mallows, found in many parts of the temper- 

 ate United States, according to Gray " inhabitating brackish marshes along the 

 coast, extending up rivers far beyond the influence of salt water (as above Harris- 

 burg, Pa.), also Onondaga Lake, New York, and westward, usually within the influ- 

 ence of salt springs." The plant grows from 4 to 8 feet in height and flowers late in 

 summer. It is also found in India. It is known in Trinidad as African okra or Gumbo 

 misse. (See fig. 63.) 



Bast Fiber. — Samples of the fiber in the museum collections are evidently hand 

 prepared, and show little strength. Those from experiments made in New Jersey in 

 1880 were considered u not only as good as India jute, but as secondary grades of 

 imported hemps." The value of the fiber, however, was very much overestimated. 

 Experiments with plant and fiber date back many years. 



"Recent experiments with the rose mallow at Camden and Newark incline us 

 strongly to believe that jute of equal quality may be obtained from it, and possibly 

 under conditions more advantageous than from the Abutilon (A. avicennce). One 

 very important advantage the rose mallow would have over the Abutilon, in respect 

 to the economy of cultivation, consists in its being a perennial. Like ramie, the 

 plants once established, the annual cuttings from the stands would be a perpetual 



