Textile Fabrics. 253 
come on the market in reliable quantities, it must be by 
other means than by ordinary merchants or growers. 
Again, it is generally found that when supplied solely from 
these sources, the quality and condition of the fibres cannot 
be relied upon. To expect otherwise would be as unrea- 
soning as to rely upon small producers for our cotton, our 
teas and sugars, or our copper and iron. The particular 
varieties of plants and the preparation of the fibres into the 
state best adapted for our uses, are matters which cannot 
be expected to be satisfactorily attended to by small pro- 
ducers, especially as the preparation of the fibres is gene- 
rally greatly assisted by suitable machinery. Further, the 
adapting of fibres to new, though most natural uses, cannot 
be developed fully by private individuals. These diffi- 
culties all point to the necessity for organization, with con- 
siderable capital, both for growing the fibres, bringing them 
into a good marketable state, and for showing the way at 
home by manufacturing some of them. The progress at 
first would be slow, as is naturally the case where growth of 
crops is in question, but the difficulties are by no means 
great. - It is yearly more and more proved that crops pro- 
duced in one country are producible with equal success in 
many others spread over the world which enjoy a similar 
climate. For those fibres which require to be specially culti- 
vated we have in Africa, in Australia, and in the West Indies, 
close to the seaboard, all the requirements for their easy 
and profitable cultivation. 
It has been further objected that the state of manufacture 
is not sufficiently advanced to warrant this employment of 
capital, This in no sense is the case:—The consumption 
of some would quickly become large if they could be ob- 
tained in a reliable state at fair prices. Their manufacture 
cannot satisfactorily be perfected, when every sample ob- 
tained varies from the preceding one. There is besides no 
inducement to bring forward improved processes, which 
contain the substance of acompletely successful treatment, 
when it is known that the prices of raw material forbid any 
treatment at all. The material to treat is the first con- 
sideration—given that, satisfactory treatment (using the 
term in an absolute sense), willrapidly follow. Many facts, 
localities, &c., could be pointed out, which would warrant 
the production of some of those fibres on the largest scale: 
and certainly, a fibre plantation is as warrantable an under- 
taking as a mine in South America, or a tea garden in 
India. 
