Added  as  a Monthly  Supplement  to  the  “ TROPICAL  AGRICULTURIST 
THE  MAGAZINE 
> . ; 
J OF 
TfiG  SCROOL  OF  SGRICULTURG, 
COLOMBO. 
Yol.  IV.]  MARCH,  1893.  [No:  9. 
FIBRES  AND  DYE-STUFFS. 
IBRE  and  dve-producing  (not  to 
mention  tan-yielding)  plants  are 
among  the  chief  natural  resources 
of  our  Island,  but  they  await  the 
critical  eye  of  a technologist  who 
will  be  able  after  examining  them,  to  give 
us  the  professional  advice  that  he  only  can 
give,  as  to  their  economic  value,  and  as 
to  the  best  methods  of  utilizing  the  fibre 
and  dye  they  contain.  It  was  only  in  our  last 
number,  while  writing  of  sida  fibre,  that  we 
quoted  the  words  of  Prof.  Goodale  to  the  effect 
that  there  are  countless  sorts  of  plants  which 
have  been  suggested  as  sources  of  good  bast 
fibres  for  spinning  and  f jr  cordage,  many  of 
which  make  capital  substitutes  for  those  already 
in  the  factories,  but  the  question  of  cheapness  of 
production  and  of  subsequent  preparation  for 
use  has  thus  far  militated  against  success  ; that  a 
process  for  separating  fine  fibres  from  undesir- 
able structural  elements  and  from  resin-like 
substances  which  accompany  them  is  a great 
desideratum,  and  if  this  were  supplied  many 
new  species  woud  assume  great  prominence  at 
once.  We  now  note  that  a factory  has  been 
established  in  High  Street,  London,  for  the 
treatment  of  various  fibrous  plants.  Samples  of 
these  plants  of  every  species,  can,  it  is  said, 
here  be  submitted  for  carefully-supervised  trial, 
and  if  the  present  machines  or  processes  prove 
unsuitable  in  some  little  detail  or  other,  the 
defect  will  be  discovered  and  remedied.  In  like 
manner  advice  will  be  given  as  to  the  best 
machines  and  methods  for  treating  fibrous  plants, 
and  opportunity  will  be  afforded  of  studying 
the  various  processes  of  production,  and  of 
acquiring  a knowledge  of  the  most  scientific 
methods  of  preparing  fibres.  In  fact  the  present 
enterprise  promises  to  develope  into  an  important 
public  technical  school : for  it  is  proposed  to 
establish  branches  in  textile,  manufacturing,  and 
cognate  centres.  From  a still  wider  point  of 
view  the  fibre  factory  may,  as  the  Indian 
Agriculturist  observes,  be  looked  upon  as  an 
exhibition  and  a permanent  institution  for 
perfecting  machinery  and  processes  relating  to 
the  treatment  of  fibre-bearing  plants  of  every 
description.  The  various  processes  to  be  carried 
on  at  the  model  fibre  factory  as  set  forth,  com- 
prise the  rapid  retting  and  ungumming  of  fibrous 
plants  ; automatic  breaking,  scutching,  combing 
and  hauling ; spinning  into  simple  and  mixed 
yarns ; cottonising  and  wollenising  fibres  to 
imitate  fine  cotton  or  wool  suitable  for  the  manu- 
facture of  various  mixed  and  cheap  fabrics  as  well 
as  for  fine  and  costly  goods;  bleaching  and  dyeing 
the  same,  and  the  rapid  drying  of  fibres 
by  means  of  cold  air.  The  factory  is  described 
as  consisting  of  a spacious  warehouse  and 
store-room  for  machines  and  samples,  with 
offices  annexed,  and  a large  machinery  and 
operating-room  with  a laboratory,  and  engine  and 
boiler  house.  The  chief  feature  in  the  oper- 
ating room  is  new  machinery  for  dealing  more 
particularly  with  leaf  plants,  such  as  phormium, 
aloe,  agave,  palms  and  the  like. 
Here  is  the  supplying  of  a desideratum,  the 
existence  of  which  has  been  so  long  deplored,  and 
the  result  of  which  must  be  the  opening  of  a 
new  vista  of  enterprise  for  many  in  the  culti- 
vation of  fibrous  plants  and  the  preparation  of 
fibres  for  the  market. 
In  the  matter  of  dye  stuffs,  that  is  vegetable  dye 
stuffs,  too,  there  would  seem  to  be  good  prospects, 
for  says  our  Indian  contemporary,  there  are  pre- 
monitary  indications  that  the  days  of  aniline  dyes 
— the  products  of  coal-tar — are  numbered;  for 
though  cheaper,  and  having  the  advantage 
of  being  capable  of  concentration  into  smaller 
bulk  than  those  furnished  by  the  vegetable  king- 
dom, they  are  found  to  be  impregnated  with 
deleterious  compounds  that  prove  highly 
injurious  to  the  material  to  which  they  are  applied. 
This  objection  is  trivial  in  the  case  of  cheap 
cotton  prints  which  wear  but  a short  time,  dyed 
or  undyed,  but  when  these  chemical  concoctions 
are  used  on  silks  and  velvets  they  rot  the  cloth, 
which  soon  loses  its  hue.  Assuming  this  to  be 
