Edible Products. 



316 



April 1908. 



for coal-tar dyes where a bright red 

 colour is desired.* 



USES OP THE PLANT FOR FIBRE. 



While this paper has been prepared 

 primarily with reference to the utiliza- 

 tion of the fruit of the roselle, the plant 

 is, as previously stated, grown in India 

 for its fibre, which is used in the manu- 

 facture of cordage and coarser textile 

 products. Considered from this stand- 

 point, the plant without further breed- 

 ing could be cultivated over a large area 

 in the Southern States, as the crop would 

 be harvested before it was damaged by 

 early frosts. On account of the vigour 

 of the plant and its easy cultivation it is 

 well worth a trial with this end in view, 

 " For this purpose the crop is cut while 

 in flower, dried, made into bundles and 

 soaked in water for fifteen or twenty 

 days. It is then possible to wash out a 

 strong silky fibre known in commerce as 

 roselle hemp, considered by some to be 

 the equal of jute. The leaves are some- 

 times used as a salad and the seeds are 

 supposed to have medicinal properties. 

 They are also fed to cattle and poultry." t 



BREEDING. 



The roselle is an annual, and con- 

 sequently seed must be saved every 

 autumn for planting the next spring. To 

 improve the strain the grower should go 

 over his field repeatedly when the fruit 

 is setting and tag such plants as combine 

 great vigour with large bearing capacity 

 and have calyces large and well formed. 

 To obtain the best results in a com- 

 paratively short time it would be ex- 



Sedient to bag and hand-pollinat the 

 owers. When the seed pods turn yellow 

 they should be gathered from time to 

 time and dried, after which they are 

 easily thrashed out. Keep the seed in a 

 dry place secure from moths and rats. 



During a long period of cultivation 

 nearly all of our vegetables have become 

 so domesticated that they may be forced 

 to grow and produce at will where 

 frostless conditions prevail ; hence we 

 have fresh tomatoes, egg-plants, etc., in 

 wind winter in the South. The roselle 

 not having had this advantage, can at 

 present be cultivated only where frost is 

 unknown or nearly so, as its growing 

 period is very long and its blooming and 

 fruiting season extends late in the year. 



• After this bulletin was prepared the writer was 

 informed by Mr. W. W. Tracy, sr., of the Bureau of 

 Plant Industry, that he, together with Mr. Coulter, 

 made jelly from the small and tender branches 

 several years ago. He adds, that the leaves were 

 picked off before boiling the stems. 



t Contributions from the Un ted States National 

 Herbarium, Vol. VIII. Pt. II., p. 169. 



Should it, however, be found desirable 

 to grow the plant in temperate climates, 

 there is no reason to doubt that the 

 roselle would adapt itself to shorter 

 summers. Its near relative, Sea Island 

 cotton, is a striking illustration of how 

 a plant may adapt itself to entirely new 

 conditions, and the following quotations 

 from Dr. H. J. Webber are, in this in- 

 stance, of timely interest : — 



According to tradition and the reports 

 of growers, Sea Island cotton when first 

 introduced into this country from the 

 We«t Indies was a perennial unsuited 

 to the duration of the seasons of the 

 latitudes of the Sea Islands off South 

 Carolina and Georgia, where is seldom 

 matured fruit. However, through the 

 selection of seed from early maturing 

 individual plants and through better 

 methods of culture, there has developed 

 an improved race which now seems to be 

 thoroughly adapted to the conditions of 

 growth in the regions referred to. 

 Furthermore, under the continuous 

 and rigorous selection to which the 

 plants have been subjected, the fibre has 

 gradually improved, and now that 

 produced along the coast and on the 

 islands lying off South Carolina and 

 Georgia is considered superior to that 

 grown in any part of the world. The 

 custom of carefully selecting the seed 

 has grown with the industry, and may 

 be said to be inseparable from it, and it 

 is only by such careful selection that the 

 staple can be kept up to its present 

 superior excellence. Several different 

 strains have been developed, and are 

 maintained by different growers select- 

 ing with different ideals in view. . . . This 

 method and similar ones employed by 

 numerous other growers are applicable, 

 with slight variations, to most of our 

 common crops, such as corn, wheat, 

 etc.* 



About 1,785 seeds of this cotton were 

 brought to Georgia from the Bahamas. 

 Notwithstanding the good care they 

 received and the mild winter, the plants 

 were killed down, but they came up 

 again from the roots, and with this start 

 succeeded in ripening a few seeds before 

 the first frost in the fall. The earliest 

 of these seeds were sown in turn, and by 

 continuing this process of selection the 

 flowering period became earlier and 

 earlier, until now the plants ripen a large 

 portion of their seeds before frost, even 

 along the coast of Carolinas. Besides 

 striving to obtain earlier maturing sorts, 

 very careful selection has for years been 

 made with a view to increasing the 

 length, fineness, and strength of the 



* Yearbook, Department of Agriculture, 1898, 

 p. 358. 



