BULLETIN OF THE BUSSEY INSTITUTION. 121 
fibre has in some parts of Europe been advantageously manufactured 
into cloth. This industry has been attempted in Great Britain, also; 
and a coarse kind of durable canvas was produced, which was con- 
siderably harder than the cloth manufactured from hemp or flax. . . 
From the rind, as well as the woody substance of the stalk, Dr. 
Scheffer has produced a very good white writing-paper.” “ New 
England Farmer,” 1828, 6. 341. 
“The common nettle has long been known as affording a large pro- 
portion of fibre, which has not only been made into ropes and cordage, 
but also into sewing thread, and beautiful white linen-like cloth of 
very superior quality.” Lawson, cited by Burr in his “ Field and Gar- 
den Vegetables of America,” 1863, p. 294. 
“Bast fibre was formerly separated in Europe from the common 
stinging nettles, Urtica dioica and U. urens, as it is from flax, and the 
so-called nettle cloth which was made therefrom was held in great con- 
sideration on account of its fineness. In the course of time, however, 
the nettle cloth has been supplanted by the finer kinds of linen, and 
has completely gone out of use. An attempt has recently been made 
to render JU. dioica, in particular, available; but there are as yet no 
trustworthy reports from which to determine whether the culture of 
this plant offers any real advantages over that of flax.” Hugo 
Miiller’s “Treatise on Cellulose,” in Hoffman’s “ Bericht iiber der che- 
mischen Industrie,” Braunschweig, 1877, p. 41. 
It is to be remarked, in this connection, that the circumstance of a 
plant’s bearing some part of its cellulose in the fibrous condition suit- 
‘able for making cloth need not necessarily unfit that plant for use as 
fodder. Much would depend upon the amount of this cellulose as 
compared with that of the other ingredients, as well as upon its tough- 
ness or rigidity. For an interesting statement of the successful use of 
unrotted flax straw for feeding neat-cattle in a time of dearth, see 
“New England Farmer,” 1837, 15. 270. According to Loudon’s 
“ Encyclopedia of Plants,” the refuse from dew-rotted flax has long 
been held to be an excellent food for horses and cattle; but, in the case 
in question, a quantity of old flax straw was simply chopped short with 
an axe and given to the animals by small portions. They ate it 
readily, and were maintained in good case by means of it. In the 
same sense, a Minnesota farmer has recently reported * his experience 
* See “New York Weekly Tribune,” Feb. 7, 1877, p. 7, col. 1. 
