140 
Some Minor Farm Crops. 
suitably standardised mode of fibre separation. In this con- 
nection, by reason of convenience, the Society is working in 
conjunction with the Leeds University in so far as this part of 
the scheme concerns Yorkshire. The work in connection with 
the growth of linseed has been delegated to the South Eastern 
Agricultural College, Wye ; and it includes the arranging of 
trial plots in different parts of the country for the purpose of 
ascertaining the best variety of flax to grow for this purpose, 
the best cultivation to adopt, and the most suitable mode of 
harvesting and of disposing of the crop. 
Attempts to isolate improved strains of flax for the more 
economic production of fibre and of seed are being made at the 
School of Agriculture, Cambridge, and at the South Eastern 
Agricultural College, Wye, from the various samples of seed 
which were collected by the writer from particularly good 
crops seen in the various countries visited. This work has not 
proceeded far enough at present to warrant anything very 
definite being said, although it does appear that plants selected 
for tallness and for shortness breed true to those characters, 
and the work generally offers no little promise. 
J. Vargas Eyre, M.A., Ph.D. 
S.E. Agricultural College, 
Wye, Kent. 
II.— HEMP. 
There are many fibres known commercially as “hemps,” 
most of which are native to tropical or semi-tropical countries. 
Among the common ones may be mentioned Manilla hemp, 
obtained from the leaf-sheaths of the non-edible banana, Musa 
textilis ; Sisal hemp from Agave rigida , of which there are 
two varieties, elongata and sisalana , the latter being by far the 
more important commercially ; two coarse Mexican fibres 
known locally as “pita” and “ istle ” or “Mexican Fibre,” also 
obtained from species of Agave ; Bowstring hemp from the 
leaves of several species of Sunsevieria , one of the genera of 
Liliaceae ; Phormium fibre or New Zealand flax or hemp from 
the leaves of Phormium ten ax, another species of Liliaceae ; 
Mauritius hemp from the leaves of Furcraea gigantea , a plant 
allied to the Agaves and belonging to the Amaryllidaceae (the 
natural order containing the snowdrop and the daffodil); Sunn 
hemp from the stems of Crotalaria juncea , a member of the 
Leguntenosae. ; and true hemp which consists of the bast fibres 
of Cannabis sativa , a plant native to Western Asia and belong- 
ing to the stinging nettle family ( XJrticaceae ). 
