_In American Cotton. In Native Kupas. Total._
1851 31,688 acres 223,314 acres 255,002
1860 146,320 " 230,677 " 377,003
In Africa, also, the export of cotton is on the increase; and Egypt is
erecting new works to retain and direct the overflow of the Nile, which
will augment her exports.
There is a belt around the earth's surface of at least sixty degrees in
width, adapted in great part to the culture of cotton. Great Britain now
commands capital, while China and India overflow with labor. Let Great
Britain divert a few millions of this capital and but half a million of
coolies to any fertile area of five thousand square miles within this
belt, and she can in a few years double her supply of cotton, and
command the residue of her importation at reasonable prices.
Among these spots none is more promising than Central America, where the
cotton-plant is perennial, and a single acre, as we are assured by Mr.
Squier, yields semiannually a bale of superior cotton. But let us hope
that the South may abandon her dream of a Southern Empire, and the
chimera which now haunts her, that the Northerner is hostile to the
Southerner, when in reality he has no such feeling, but merely recoils
from institutions which he believes to be at variance with moral and
material progress.
Hemp, or _Cannabis sativa_, from which we possibly derive the modern
term canvas, was known to the ancients and used by them for rope and
cordage and occasionally for cloth. It was found early in Thrace, in
Caria, and upon the Rhone. Herodotus says that garments were made of it
by the Thracians "so much like linen that none but an experienced person
could tell whether they were made of hemp or of flax."
Moschion, who flourished two centuries before the Christian era, states
that the celebrated ship Syracusia built by Hiero II. was provided with
rope made from the hemp of the Rhone. Although the plant is indigenous
in Northern India, where it is cultivated for its narcotic qualities, it
is adapted to a southern climate; and we may safely infer that it was
not a native of either Italy, Greece, or Asia Minor, but was doubtless
introduced into Caria by the active trade between the Euxine and
Miletus. Cloth of hemp is still worn by boatmen upon the Danube; but
although its fibre is nearly as delicate as that of flax and cotton, it
is used principally for cordage, for which purpose it is imported from
the interior of Russia into England and the United States. In 1858 the
entire importation into Great Britain was forty-four thousand tons.
A large amount is now raised in Missouri and Kentucky, whose soil is
admirably adapted to the hemp-plant. Hemp grows freely in Bologna,
Romagna, and Naples, and the Italians have a saying, that "it may be
grown everywhere, but cannot be produced fit for use in heaven or on
earth without manure." The Italian hemp is aided by irrigation.
The plant is annual, and attains a height of three to ten feet,
according to the soil and climate. Its stalk is hollow, filled with a
soft pith, and surrounded by a cellular texture coated with a delicate
membrane which runs parallel to the stalk and is covered by a thin
cuticle. In Russia the seed is sown in June and gathered in September.
The Manila hemp (_Musa textilis_) does not appear to have been known to
the ancients, and is now found in the Philippine Islands, the Indian
Archipelago, and Japan, regions unexplored by the ancients. It is also
found at the base of the Himalaya Mountains. It is a large herbaceous
plant, which requires a warm climate, and is cut after a growth of
eighteen months. The outer layers or fibres of the plant are called the
_bandola_, which is used in the fabrication of cordage; the inner layers
have a more delicate fibre called the _lupis_, which is woven into fine
fabrics; while the intermediate layers, termed _tupoz_, are made into
cloth of different degrees of fineness.
The filaments, after they are gathered, are separated by a knife, and
rendered soft and pliable by beating them with a mallet; their ends are
then gummed together, after which they are wound into balls, and the
finer qualities are woven without going through the process of spinning.
With the produce of this plant the natives pay their tribute, purchase
the necessaries of life, and provide themselves with clothing.
The imports of this article into Great Britain in 1859 were very
considerable, while the United States also imported a very large amount.
It is used for cordage by the ships of both countries. In one respect
it differs from wool, cotton, and hemp, the fibres of all of which are
found by the microscope to consist of tubes, while the filaments of
the _Musa textilis_, although often fine, are in no case hollow, and
consequently are less flexible and divisible than other fibres.
Within the last twenty years, a new export from India, in the shape of
Jute and its fabrics, has grown up from insignificance into commercial
importance, and is now among the chief exports of the country. This
article demands our particular attention, as it requires but four months
for its production, furnishes a very large supply of textile material,
is raised at one-fifth the expense of cotton, and has been sold in India
as low as one cent per pound.
Jute is generally grown as an after-crop in India upon high ground, and
flourishes best in a hot and rainy season. The seed is sown broadcast in
April or May, when there is sufficient rain to moisten the ground. When
the plant is a foot and a half high it is weeded. It rises on good soil
to the height of twelve feet, and flowers between August and September.
The stems are usually three-fourths of an inch in diameter. The leaves
have long foot-stalks, the flowers are small and yellow, and the
capsules short and globose, containing five cells for the seed. The
fruit ripens in September and October. The average yield in fibre to
the acre is from four hundred to seven hundred pounds. When the crop is
ripe, the stems are cut close to the root, made up into bundles, and
deposited for a week in some neighboring pond or stream.
The process of separating the fibre from the stem is thus described by
Mr. Healy in the "Journal of Agriculture for India";--
"The native operator, standing up to his middle in water, takes as many
of the sticks in his hands as he can grasp, and removing a small portion
of the bark from the end next the roots, and grasping them together, he
with a little management strips off the whole from end to end, without
breaking either stem or fibre. He then, swinging the bark around his
head, dashes it repeatedly against the surface of the water, drawing it
towards him to wash off the impurities."
The filaments are then hung up to dry in the sun, often in lengths of
twelve feet, and when dried the jute is ready for the market.
The color at first is a pure white, but gradually changes to yellow. The
fibre, which is fine and delicate, is tubular, like that of flax and
cotton, and is easily wrought; but its tenacity is not equal to that of
other textile materials, although it is substituted in many fabrics
for wool, flax, and cotton. A large portion of the crop, which already
exceeds two hundred thousand tons, is exported to England as it comes
from the field, and is there used in the manufacture both of wool and
cotton to cheapen the fabric. The vigilant eye will often detect it in
woollen manufactures, in shawls, and even in sail-cloths; but when spun
with cotton or wool, it is very difficult to discover its presence.
A few years since, there was a great reduction in the price of plaid
shawls from England, which took the dealers by surprise, as the cost
was previously supposed to have reached the lowest point; but a close
examination of the threads elicited the fact that the manufacturer had
adroitly twisted in with his wool a liberal allowance of jute, costing
but two or three cents a pound when wool cost thirty, and thus reduced
the price of the fabric.
By the use of shoddy in the manufacture of woollens, and of jute in both
cotton and woollen fabrics, the English artisan saves many millions
of pounds both of wool and cotton. In those districts of India where
British skill and commercial enterprise have checked the manufacture of
muslin and calicoes, the Hindoos of all classes find in the culture and
manufacture of jute employment for all, "from the palanquin-bearer and
husbandman down to the Hindoo widow, saved by the interposition of
England from the funeral pile, but condemned by custom for the residue
of her days literally to sackcloth and ashes." The fine and long-stapled
jute is reserved for the export trade, for which it bears a
comparatively high price; the residue is spun and woven by these classes
as a domestic manufacture; it is made into gunny-cloth, which is
circulated through the globe, forms the bagging for our corn, wheat,
and cotton on their voyage to distant ports, and finally makes its last
appearance as paper.
The long stems of the jute are highly esteemed in India; they resemble
willow wands, are useful for basket-work and fencing, for trellis-work
and the support of vines, and to make a charcoal which is valued for the
manufacture of gunpowder.
The export of jute from India to England for 1859 was sixty thousand
tons. The export of gunny-cloth from India to the United States in the
same year amounted to several millions of pieces.
Why should not this valuable plant be introduced into America? It
requires the same season and soil as our Indian corn, and would
doubtless flourish in the rich alluvial lands of the West, and furnish a
very cheap and useful domestic manufacture for our Western farmers.
The term Linen is doubtless derived from _Linum_, the classic and
botanic name of flax. In Holy Writ, Moses called down the hail upon the
growing flax of Lower Egypt, and Isaiah speaks of those "that work in
fine flax." According to Herodotus, the ancient Egyptians wore linen.
Plutarch informs us that the priests of Isis wore linen on account of
its purity, and mentions a tradition that flax was used for clothing
"because the color of its blossom resembles the ethereal blue which
surrounds the world"; and he adds, that the priests of Isis were buried
in their sacred vestments. An eminent cotton-spinner, who subjected four
hundred specimens of mummy-cloth to the microscope, has ascertained that
they were all linen; and even now, when aspiring cotton has contested
its superiority, and claimed to be more healthful and more beneficial
to the human frame, the choicest drapery of our tables and couches, and
many of our most costly and elegant articles of dress, are fabricated
from flax.
Flax is sown in the spring and harvested in the summer, and requires but
three months for its growth. While cotton grows in hot climates only,
flax grows both under the tropics and in temperate climates, and as far
north as Russia, Ireland, and Canada; and while at the South it runs
mostly to seed, the best varieties are produced in Normandy, Belgium,
and Poland.
In another particular flax has the advantage over cotton. While the
latter, under the ordinary course of cultivation in South Carolina,
yields but one bale to four acres, and in virgin soil rarely more than
one bale to two acres, flax yields in good soil from five to eight
hundred pounds of fibre to the acre, which may be converted into
flax-cotton by modern machinery; and as the product has but three per
cent. waste, while cotton loses eleven per cent. in its manufacture, the
flax-cotton which is produced from a single acre is the equivalent of
one to two bales of cotton.
With these important advantages, namely, its adaptation to a northern
climate where the white man can labor, and a capacity for yielding so
large an amount of fibre, flax holds a high place in the list of textile
materials.
Flax can be raised with very moderate expense up to the time of harvest.
If the soil is free from weeds, it requires little more preparation,
care, or expense for its culture than wheat or barley. But from this
point onward a large expenditure of labor is requisite, which greatly
enhances the cost, carrying it up as high as ten to twenty cents per
pound, according to the degree of fineness; for the filaments must be
separated from the stem by immersion in water, must be kept in parallel
lines, and prepared for the spindle by skilful and long-continued labor.
To insure the best quality, it must be pulled and bound in bundles
before it is entirely ripe, thus impairing the value of the seed, while
the edible and nutritious portion of the stalk is lost or injured in the
water.
For many years it was spun on the little wheel, but of late years
improved machinery has been applied at Belfast, Leeds, Dundee, and other
cities of Great Britain; yet nearly a third of the value is lost in the
broken filaments, which are reduced to tow in its preparation for the
spindle. With a fibre at least as fine and delicate as that of cotton,
its full value to the world will not be demonstrated until it is
effectually cottonized.
In its present state, however, it has come into very extensive use. More
than eighty thousand tons were, in 1859, imported into Great Britain,
and many acres are there devoted to its culture. The consumption in that
country is estimated to exceed one hundred and sixty thousand tons,
a quantity equivalent to eight hundred thousand bales of cotton. In
addition to this, ten millions of bushels of flax-seed are annually
crushed in Great Britain, a large portion of which is drawn from India.
The culture of flax was introduced into this country early in the last
century by the Scotch, who crossed over to Ireland under Elizabeth and
Cromwell, and soon after the siege of Derry transferred their arts and
their industry to this country. Several colonies of these were planted
in Pennsylvania and Tennessee, and a large colony was established at
Natfield, New Hampshire, upon a tract twelve miles square, one of the
best sections of the State, situate in the area between Manchester,
Lowell, Lawrence, and Exeter. Here every farmer cultivated his field of
barley and flax, here every woman had her little wheel, and the
article formed the currency of the place;--notes were given payable in
spinning-wheels. Girls were seen beetling the linen on the grass;
and when the harvest over, the men mounted their horses, and with
well-filled saddle-bags threaded the by-roads of the forest to find
a market in Boston, Lynn, Salem, or Newburyport. Fortunes were thus
accumulated and a flourishing academy and two Presbyterian societies are
now sustained by funds thus acquired by the Pinkerton family. But as the
wages of girls gradually rose from two shillings to two dollars per
week with the invention of the cotton-gin, the power-loom, and the
spinning-jenny, the culture of flax was gradually abandoned, the seat
of manufactures removed from the hills to the waterfalls, and the
flax-fields converted into market-gardens or milk-farms. The town
of Derry, once the great seat of New-England manufactures, is now
principally distinguished for the Stark, Rogers, and Reed it gave to the
French War and the Revolution, for the Bells, Dinsmores, Wilsons, and
Pattersons it has given to the halls of legislation, and the McKeens,
McGregors, Morisons, and Nesmiths it has furnished to commerce or the
Church.
At the present rates of labor, the culture of flax cannot be revived in
this region until the mode of curing and dressing it is cheapened; and
there is reason to hope that this revolution is at hand.
At the present moment flax is raised both in India and Ohio for the seed
alone. An acre of ripened flax yields from ten to twenty bushels
of seed, and each bushel affords nearly or quite two gallons of
linseed-oil. The well-ripened seed is most prolific in oil.
It has been supposed by some that flax exhausts the soil. It is
undoubtedly true that it does best under a rotation of crops, and
that the ingredients it withdraws from the soil should be restored to
preserve its fertility. But the reduction of the plant to ashes shows
that its chemical components can be restored at a cost of three dollars
per acre, while the properties withdrawn by the seed can be easily
supplied by returning in other fertilizers the equivalent for half a ton
of flax-seed. If the oil-cake be consumed upon the farm, little more
than the above and its product in manure will be required.
The ashes of the flax-plant have been analyzed. Dr. Royle, of England, a
distinguished writer upon fibrous plants, assures us that the following
compound will supply to one acre all that the plant requires, and leave
the land as fertile as before the flax was gathered:--
_lbs. s. d._
Muriate of Potash 30 cost 2 6
Common Salt 28 " 0 3
Burned Plaster of Paris 34 " 0 6
Bone-Dust 54 " 3 3
Epsom Salts 56 " 4 0
10 6
It has been ascertained by the microscope that wool, cotton, hemp, jute,
and flax are composed of minute fibres, each of which forms a hollow
tube, and there is a close resemblance between the tubes of each,--the
tube of the cotton, however, collapsing as it ripens. These tubes in the
jute and flax are closely cemented together, and the term _Fibrilia_ has
been applied to fibres of the plant when reduced to a short staple
like cotton. The process for effecting this result is very accurately
described in a work just published, entitled "Fibrilia." The patentees
of this invention claim that their process, in the space of twenty-four
hours, converts the flax and tow, as they come from the threshing-mill,
into an article which may be spun and woven by the same machinery as
cotton. The article produced and lately exhibited at public meetings
resembles cotton in its appearance and qualities, with the advantage
that it wastes less in the manufacture, has more lustre, and receives a
superior color. The patentees and their friends further claim that this
cotton can be raised in all temperate latitudes, at the rate of four to
eight hundred pounds per acre, and profess within the past year to have
manufactured twelve thousand pounds.
These statements have been confidently made at public meetings in
the State House of Massachusetts, and it is understood that a mill
containing one hundred looms, half of which are now in operation, has
been erected at Roxbury, under the direction of gentlemen who are
familiar with the manufacture. Should the same results be obtained on a
large scale which have attended the manufacture of the first few bales,
the first step in a great revolution will be effected.
By the process of Mr. S.M. Allen of Boston, the great outlay of labor
which has usually attended the culture and preparation of flax is
avoided. When the plant has attained its full height of twenty to thirty
inches, and its seed is ripened, it is harvested like grass with a
mowing-machine, dried like hay or oats in the field, and then carried
to the threshing-mill. After the seed is separated, the stalk is
transferred to a patent brake, moved by two or four horses, and costing
from three to four hundred dollars. This machine is composed of several
sets of fluted iron rollers, between which the stalk passes from one set
to another, the rollers gradually diminishing in size, but increasing in
rapidity of motion, by means of which the woody texture of the plant is
effectually broken and separated. The filaments are then carried through
a coarse card or picker. The shives are thus separated, and two tons of
stalks reduced to half a ton of linten, which may be either taken at
once to the retort or baled for shipment. When the flax is thus reduced
by the farmer to linten, the article is reputed to be worth to the
manufacturer four cents a pound, or at least twenty dollars for the
product of an acre yielding a single ton of flax-straw.
According to this statement the farmer would realize from his crop at
least as follows:--
Estimated value of seed, 14 bushels,
at $1.25 $17.50
Estimated value of 500 lbs. of linten,
at 4 cts. 20.00
Estimated value of 3/4 of a ton of shives
from unrotted stems, valuable for
cattle, at $8.00 per ton 6.00