228 



USEFUL FIBER PLANTS OF THE WORLD. 



neighborhood agreeing to produce 5, 10, or 20 acres of straw each, under the direc- 

 tion, if need be, of the managers of the mills, to insure the growth of a quality of 

 straw that will give the proper standard of fiber. This relieves the farmers from 

 any responsibility in the matter further than to produce a proper crop of straw. 

 The scotch mills or tow mills attend to the retting and cleaning of the fiber, whuch 

 in turn is sold to the spinner. One good scutch mill will prepare the flax grown on 

 a score or more of farms, and as the work is accomplished under one direction, the 

 product will be far more even as to standards than would be possible were it pre- 

 pared by twenty different men. in Canada and in northern Michigan (in the neigh- 

 borhood of Yale, where there are successful scutch mills) the practice is to sell the 

 seed to the farmers, at the mills, at a fixed price per bushel, the farmers agreeing to 

 sow a certain number of acres to flax, the straw from which the managers of the 

 scutch mills agree to take at a fixed price per ton, in some cases $10 being named. 



The farmers of the United States use improved implements and machines in all 

 farm operations, and American farm implements are recognized as the finest in the 

 world. What invention has done for other rural industries is possible for the tlax 

 industry, and by the use of improved machines in every stage of flax culture the 

 difference in wages between this country and the Old World will be more than 

 equalized. The "American practice/' means simply an intelligent practice, for the 

 growth of both fiber and seed, achieving economical production by the employment 

 of labor-saving machinery, even in the pulling of the flax straw, line flax can be 

 grown in the United States, providing the farmers grow it intelligently and perse- 

 veringly — not one year, or two, or three, but year after year, growing each year a 

 little, and growing it well. 



Statistical uecords. — Reference has been made to the large crops of flax grown 

 in this country iu previous years. The following figures of yield of seed and liber. 

 for five periods, from 1849 to 1889, are reproduced from reports of the Eleventh Census : 



Year. 



Bushels. 



Pounds of 

 fiber. 



1849 



562, 312 

 566, 867 



7, 70fi. 676 

 4 72(1 US 



1859 



1869 



1,730, 444 27,133.034 



1879 



7,170,951 ! 1,565,546 



1889 



10,250,410 241,389 



For the figures of yield by States, see Bulletin Xo. 177, Eleventh Census, by John 

 Hyde. 



The States producing fiber, largely coarse tow for upholsterers' use, in 1889, in the 

 order of importance are Illinois, Kansas, Michigan, * Virginia, Ohio, New York, 

 * Kentucky, Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, Indiana, * West Virginia, * North Carolina, 

 South Dakota, 'Tennessee, Maine, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Pennsylvania. 

 and Arkansas, the first with a record of 57, 776 pounds, and the last named, 1 1 pounds. 

 The figures for States denoted with an asterisk (*) doubtless represent iu part the 

 remnant of the old household linen industry, for in 1*90 flax was still grown for 

 homespun in the mountain regions of the States named. The total figures for the 

 States thus indicated are 49,737 pounds. Virginia and Kentucky supply over 30,000 

 pounds of this quantity, and showing a mixed commercial and household industry. 



Livistona australis. 



One of the few palms found in Australia, attaining a heighl of LOO feet, its trunk 

 being a foot in diameter. The species of this genus are found from upper Assam 

 ami southern China through Malacca and the islands of the Indian Archipelago, as 

 well as Australia. 



FlBF.R. — The lin expanded leases of L. australis are prepared by scalding, and dry- 

 ing in the shade, when the material is used for making hats. 



