THE TECHNOLOGIST. [Sept. 1, 1865. 
02 THE FIBRES OF COMMERCE. 
obtained per acre, and the following calculations, which are the result of 
careful experiments, are worthy of record : — 
Cotton in America is an annual plant, subject to many deteriorating 
influences, particularly from frost or excessive rain, and a full average 
crop is considered to be one bale per acre, or about 4 cwt. Flax, an 
annual, is regarded as a good crop at 6 cwt. per acre ; and hemp at 7 
cwt. per acre. 
The plantain will yield of the best quality of fibre, 48 cwt. per 
acre, besides the coarser qualities, consequently its produce will be, as 
compared with that of cotton, twelve-fold ; of fiax, eight-fold ; and of 
hemp, seven-fold. Moreover, the produce of the plantain, from 500 
acres, would require, to obtain the same quantity in cotton, 6,000 acres ; 
in flax, 4,000 acres ; and in hemp, 3,500 aeres. But flax and hemp, 
being exhausting crops, cannot be grown upon the same land oftener (at 
the utmost), than in a five year rotation. Therefore, to produce 
annually, and every year, 1,200 tons of flax, would require the use of an 
estate of 20,000 acres. And for hemp in the same way, 17,500 acres. 
Whilst the plantain not being an exhausting crop, would continue to 
produce its 1,200 tons of fibre per annum, without replanting, for a term 
of twelve or fifteen years upon 500 acres. 
The New Zealand flax produces l,792lbs. per acre, the Mooiva, or 
Marool (Sanseviera), 1,613 to 3,226lbs. in two crops. 
Several of the nettle family of the East yield fibres of extreme value, 
especially the Urtica (Boehmeri'a nivea), from which the Chinese grass 
cloth is made, and for which 120/. a ton has been given ; and the Ehea 
of Assam (Urtica tenacissima) identical in properties and value. The 
softest flax is excelled in fineness by this fibre, and the strongest hemp 
in tenacity by the Himalayan hemp. 
iThe China grass cloth, BoeJimeria nivea, is a plant equally as suscep- 
tible of cultivation as the sugar-cane, and on similar principles, increased 
readily by seed and suckers. In rapidity and luxuriance of growth it 
vies with the rankest tropical weed, and will grow in any soil, but seems 
to thrive best in a moist climate. So rapid is the growth of this plant, 
that, by careful observation, the colonial botanist of Jamaica, found one 
of its shoots attain the height of six and a half feet in fourteen days, and, 
ultimately, eight and a half feet ; but in good land it would exceed this 
by two feet, while in China and the East Indies, where it is highly cul- 
tivated, eight feet is the height mentioned it now makes, from which 
fibre six feet long is obtained. This is the plant from the fibre of which 
is fabricated the finest cloth in the world. It has also been ascertained 
to be not only the finest, but the strongest of every fibre submitted to 
test by the East India Company. This fibre is now beginning to be 
known in the market, and commands an exorbitant price ; on the 
continent especially, attention has lately been much drawn to it. 
The Sansevieras are liliceous plants, long known and cultivated, as 
holding an important place among fibre-producing plants, in the East 
