33 
[ Rep. No. 564. j 
districts of the old Southern and Northern States, is the extended cultivation 
of the same staples in the fertile districts of the new Southwestern and 
Western States; and as the completion of canals and railroads between the 
loamy banks of the Western rivers and the sandy shores of the Atlantic 
ocean will still further reduce the prices of the present products of the plant¬ 
ers of the South, and of the farmers of the North ; as foreign commerce, 
domestic manufactures, and even internal improvements, have ceased to 
be profitable pursuits; and as the great surplus of funds and laborers, let 
loose from them all, is swelling the great natural currents of our wealth 
and population, increasing through additional artificial channels to the 
fertile valleys of the Ohio and Mississippi, where agriculture is still attended 
with moderate gain, even the planter of the Southwest and the farmer 
of the West will soon be greatly injured by overproduction of their re¬ 
spective actual staples; and that hence the substitution of such new staples 
of agriculture as can be propagated on the worst soils of the old States 
more profitably than their ancient staples can be cultivated on the best 
soils of lYiQ new States, will prove to be both a nsAmdl preventive of the 
future distress of the latter, and an effectual remedy for present dis¬ 
tress of the/orwer; and a happy preservative of a'healthy equilibrium 
in the products, profits, and population of the four great divisions of the 
Union. 
19. That your memorialist most respectfully solicits the atten¬ 
tion of Congress to his various communications on the propagation of 
fibrous-leaved plants, and the production of foliaceous fibres in Florida 
and in all the Southern States; in wJiich he has shown that they are all 
hardy, productive, perennial plants, which profitably propagate them¬ 
selves on sandy, stony, and swampy surfaces, in the sun and in the shade ^ 
that fibrous leaves, produced in any soil and situation, with the least 
care and cultivation, may be cut in any weather and qyqxj season of the 
year; that these freshly cut leaves maybe emmecfza/e/y manufactured 
into excellent paper, at so cheap a price that it will become as important 
a,n auxiliary to popular education as the printing-press itself; that these 
living perennial leaves of endogenous planis will yield their fibrous con¬ 
tents in the shortest possible time, with the simplest possible preparation, 
as foliaceous fibres are extracted from the green leaves by simple 
scraping only ; that immediately after this mechanical separation, these 
parallel longitudinal fibres are ready for baling, exportation, or manu¬ 
facture ; that these foliaceous fibres great ds their individual 
strength, elasticity, and length) may he, instantly untwisted, 
into very cheap forms and fabrics, for which the unspun cortical fibres of 
hemp and flax are entirely unserviceable ; that moreover the foliaceous 
fibres are so much cheaper, lighter, stronger, longer, more elastic, and 
more durable than cortical fibres, that they can be spun into thread, twine, 
and cordage, and woven into cloths finer than cambric and coarser than 
canvass, which will become superior substitutes for similar fabrics of flax 
and hemp for the general consumption of mankind; that furthermore, 
many of said fibrous-leaved plants form excellent hedges for themselves 
and for other objects of cultivation; that the entire leaves of many species 
constitute the best materials for the simplest manufacture of the cheapest 
possible matting, bagging, and other envelopes of merchandise ; for the 
really domestic manufactures, or farm, family, and female manufactures 
of hats, bonnets, &c., by an innocent, independent, and rural population; 
