Aug. 1, 1899.] Supplement to the " fropical Jgricutturist.'' 
Ui 
Hues nud nets. Aud it might further be con- 
jectured that the rude knotting of the twisted 
filaments of fibre in the form of nets may have 
tirst suggested weaving and the substitution of 
vegetable clothing for the skins of animals. 
Flax has a greater antiquity than any of the 
fibres of which we have knowledge, for its culti- 
vation goes back to the Stone Age in Europe. It 
is knowij to have been manufactured by the Swiss 
Lake Dwellers, a people contemporaueous with the 
long-extinct mammoth and other great mammals 
of the Quaternary Epoch, as specimens of the 
straw, fibre, fabrics, etc., prepared by them are 
preserved in the Museums. It is supposed that 
the species cultivated at that remote period of 
the world's history, concerning which no written 
records remain, was Linum angustifolium, which 
at a later period, though still remote by four or 
five thousand years, the Egyptians cultivated the 
gpecies known today as commercial flax {Linum 
usitatisdmum). 
Before the books of Genesis and Exodus were 
written Egyptians were skilled in spinning and 
weaving flax, for both the culture and the manu- 
facture of this textile are pictorially carved upon 
the bas-reliefs and upon the walls of palaces, 
temples, and tombs. Egyptian fabrics of linen 
4,500 years old and preserved in the museums 
and among the mummy cloths, fabrics from the 
most delicate tissues to linen, like sailcloth, have 
been found, and as many as 350 yards were some- 
times used to eiiwarp one body. The linens were 
both white and dyed in colors : yellow, red, and 
purple, and they were handsomely embroidered. 
Spinning and weaving in Bible times were house- 
hold industries, as we are assured by many re- 
ferences to women and flax. The Phoenicians 
did much to extend the culture of flax and the art 
of weaving linen, as their ships plowed the 
Atlantic more than three thousand years ago, 
even journeying to Britain, for they were a nation 
of traders, and there is every reason to believe 
that the Chaldeans excelled in spinning and weav- 
ing flax, while the Babylonians, centuries before 
Christ, were noted for their luxury and the high 
state of developement of their textile art, flax, 
cotton, and wool being manufactured by them. 
Wool was more grown in ancient Greece than 
flax, though the latter textile was produced in 
certain favourable districts and imported in large 
quantities for manufacture. There was a distinct 
linen industry, slaves being the operatives, as 
■well as a household industry, for whether in 
the cottage or the palace, if possible, a special 
room was set apart for the occupation of weaving. 
In Homeric times not only were maids and ladies 
of high degree familiar with weaving, but with 
spinning aud embroidery, and the distaff and spin- 
dle were often made of ivory or of gold. As in 
Greece, so iu Kome, there were regular linen 
establishments, and at the same time a domestic 
manufacture practiced by maids and matrons. 
Woollen was earlier used for clothing by the 
Romans ; then linen was employed, first for 
domestic uses, then a.s a dress material, the women 
adopting it before the men. 
Eegarding the early use of linen iu our own 
country, the time when American history began 
to be made is so recent that the word ancient 
^068 not apply- It has been state4 that both flas 
and hemp were kuown to the ancient Mexicans or 
Aztecs, though I can refer to no records which 
relate to their use. 
While it has been shown that cotton was the 
ancient national textile of India, its cultivation 
and use were by no means confined to that 
country. Flax was the aristocratic textile of 
Egypt aud was generally cultivated, but cotton 
was grown in the southern part of the country. 
Cotton and linen were sometimes woven together 
(flax warp and cotton woofj, just as mixed "tow 
linen " is made in the mountains of Virginia aud 
North Carolina today. These Egyptian mixed 
fabrics, as well as pure cotton cloths, were largely 
used in upholstery as the coverings of chairs and 
couches, and probably also as drapery hang-r 
ings. The cottons of India were famous and 
Hindoo muslins were formerly produced that 
were so fine that when laid upon the grass and 
wet with dew they became invisible. The mar- 
velous fabrics of Cos and Tarentum, by some said 
to have been made from cotton, were more likely 
silk, as they are described as floating like mist 
around the female form, disclosing the contour 
like gauze veil. There is also the record of a 
muslin turban 30 English yards in length, con- 
tained in a coconut set with jewels, which was 
also exquisitely fine that it could scarcely be 
felt by the touch. It is impossible to say how far 
back into the ages cotton was first used in India, 
and though it is referred to 800 B.C., we may be 
sure that the industry was old at that time* 
Cotton was a late introduction into Greece, though 
it was known 200 B.C., and even linen was an 
introduced textile, which came slowly into favor 
at u time when wool was almost universally used. 
-« 
VELVET BEANS AS HUMAN FOOD. 
The shelled beans have been used as food fot 
cattle, hogs and chickens and even as a table 
vegetable. The writer has up to this time made 
no experiments to determine the suitability of 
the beans for feeding to different classes of live 
stock. 
Inasmuch as there is on record one well authett* 
ticated case of injury following the use of green 
immature shelled velvet beans as a table vege- 
table, caution is advised in using the beans' for 
human food. This case of apparent poisoning of 
acute indigestion following the eating of green 
velvet beans, boiled, was carefully investigated 
by Mr. V. K. Chestnut, of the U.S. Department 
of Agriculture. He has kindly permitted the 
writer to examine his correspondence with Mr. 
J. S, Sergeant of Florida, who reported the only 
case on record, where velvet beans proved deci- 
dedly harmful. With him green boiled velvet 
beans proved injurious, not only to men, but also 
to the poultry. Mr. Sergeant writes as follows 
concerning velvet beans as a substitute for beans:— 
"We have since used them as coffee two and 
three times a day for three or four months con- 
tinually without observing any deleterious effect. 
If properly ground they make a very pleasant 
drink. The least bit of burning makes the 
beverage too bitter, and on the other hand too 
little browning, leaves them with an unpleasant 
taste ana oaor," Fous Flgriaiafls wlw hav^ 
