quality of his crop so long as his neighbors persist in producing inferior cotton from mixed seed and ginning their crop in the same gin. It is also difficult to get full price for the better staple because it is available only in small quantities. A real improvement in production and quality of American cotton will come only in well-organized communities devoted to the growing of one pure variety, to maintenance of the quality and uniformity of this variety by improved methods of culture, continuous selection of the planting seed, clean ginning, and cooperative marketing of the crop year after year in the large commercial quantities of uniform fiber that manufacturers require. Fiber Flax General.-Hemp and fiber flax are the only fiber-producing plants, aside from cotton, that give promise of commercial success in the United States. Flax includes two different forms or groups of cultivated varieties, namely, seed flax and fiber flax. Fiber flax is an annual herbaceous plant with straight, erect stalks 30 or 40 inches tall and threethirty-seconds inch or less in diameter, bearing simple, narrow leaves and a few short branches near the top. The bright blue flowers are followed by nearly spherical capsules containing brown seeds. The fiber is found in the inner bark of the main stem. Distribution.-Practically all the seed may be traced back to Russia. In the United States it is grown in eastern Michigan and in the Willamette Valley in Oregon. Climate. Requires a cool, moist climate. It is a 90day crop and may be grown where the season is too short for most other field crops. Warm, dry weather ruins the crop for the production of spinning fiber. It is more subject to lodging from wind and beating rain than most other crops. Soil. Clay loams, sandy loams, or even sandy soils with some humus and not subject to drought will produce good crops of flax. The heavier soils usually give a heavier yield, and the lighter soils produce finer fiber. Fertilizers. So far as demonstrated in this country, the best fertilizer is barnyard manure applied to a previous crop. Direct application of commercial fertilizer is likely to produce coarse, uneven stalks and ruin the crop. Rotation.-May follow clover or pasture that has been fall-plowed, or corn or other intertilled crops provided they have been kept, free from weeds. Grows well after hemp because of the absence of weeds. Rarely does well after small grains. Sow Seeding. Prepare the land more thoroughly than for any other field crop in order to insure uniformity of growth. Sow with a drill or seeder, covering the seed with not more than three-fourths of an inch of soil. at the rate of 70 pounds (14 bushels) per acre, but this rate may be increased for very fertile, moist land. Roll after seeding to pack the soil around the seeds, which will insure prompt and even germination and leave a smooth surface, which is an advantage in harvesting. In Europe fields of fiber flax are often weeded by hand, but that is not done in the United States. Harvesting.-Harvest about 90 days after seeding, or after the leaves fall and the stalks turn yellow, and when most of the seed bolls have turned from yellow to brown and the seeds are brown and hard. It is pulled and bound in bundles by hand at the rate of about one-fourth acre per day, or by flax-pulling machines at the rate of about 4 acres per day, or cut with self-rake reapers at the rate of about 5 acres per day. Pulled flax produces better fiber and better seed than cut flax. Set up the bundles of flax in shocks to cure for a period of 5 to 10 days. Then draw them directly from the field to the scutching mill, and stack or store in sheds. Deseeding. Thresh or deseed by holding the stalks by hand and pass the tops two to five times between revolying belt pulleys which crush the seed bolls. Clean the seed by running it through a fanning mill. More efficient combined flax-threshing and seed-cleaning machines are coming into use. Retting. In eastern Michigan flax is dew-retted by spreading it on the ground exposed to the weather for two to six weeks. It is often too dry and cold for dew-retting in the fall, so most of this work is done the following spring and early summer. In Oregon nearly all the flax is water-retted in tanks supplied with water from a creek. This work has to be discontinued in I winter because the water is too cold. Much has been published about chemical retting, but thus far this has not been developed into commercial success. Breaking. After retting and drying the stalks, break by feeding them endwise, a handful at a time, through fluted rollers with an interrupted motion. This breaks the woody interior part into small pieces called shives. Scutching. The fiber coming from the brake is held by hand, first one end and then the other, over the edge of a notch in the scutching stall, where it is beaten by the revolving blades of the scutching wheel, which scrape away the loosened shives. This work requires skill. Three or four different kinds of combined breaking and scutching machines are being tried, but they are not yet in general use. The scutched fiber is made up into hands and baled for market. Yield.-Production of dry fiber flax straw with the seed ranges from 1% to 31⁄2 tons per acre. This yields 4 to 6 bushels of seed and 200 to 500 pounds of scutched fiber. Use of Poor Crops. Because of unfavorable weather conditions and unsuitable soils an average of at least 20 per cent of the total acreage of fiber flax grown is too short or is lodged and tangled, so that it can not be used for the production of spinning fiber. This is cut with mowing machines, raked up with hayrakes, and without being retted it is put through a series of fluted rollers, which thresh the seed and soften the straw for upholstering_tow. Market. Flax fiber is not quoted in the United States. It is used by a number of spinning mills located chiefly in the districts tributary to Boston and New York. The prices for scutched fiber range from 20 to 30 cents per pound, which are much higher than pre-war prices. Consumption and Demand.-Previous to 1914, the annual consumption of flax fiber in the United States ranged from about 8,000 to 10,000 tons, nearly all of which was imported from Russia. Since the war the importations have been only 5,000 to 8,000 tons annually, but there has been little demand for American flax. Equipment. The production of flax fiber requires special equipment as follows: Seeding machinery or modified grain drills, a flax-pulling machine or self-rake reaper for U. S. D. A.-10-1-26 each 100 acres, a scutching mill with threshing, seedcleaning, breaking, and scutching machinery for each 500 acres. If the flax is water-retted, tanks are required with a supply of soft water. Organization. The scutching mills are usually operated by a company which supplies the seed and all special equipment, selects the fields, and contracts for acreage. The grower is usually paid on the basis of the weight of straw and seed delivered at the scutching mill. The prices paid for the straw in recent years have ranged from $20 to $35 per ton. Hemp General.-Hemp fiber, formerly the most important material in homespun fabrics, is now most familiar to the purchasing public in this country in the strong, gray tying twines one-sixteenth to one-fourth inch in diameter, known by the trade name commercial twines." Hemp is an annual herbaceous plant belonging to the hemp family, which includes two species of hops and one species of hemp. It grows from the seed with an erect central stalk 3 to 12 feet high and one-eighth to 11⁄2 inches in diameter, branching and leafy if grown in hills for seed production, and without branches or leaves, except a few at the top, when crowded in broadcast sowing for fiber production. The fiber, like all bast fibers, is produced in the inner bark of the stalk. It contains numerous strands extending from the surface of the ground to the ends of the main stalk and branches. The fiber is gray in color, if dew-retted, and creamy white, if water-retted. The strands of hemp fiber composed of innumerable overlapping cells three-sixteenths to 2% inches long and 0.003 to 0.012 inch in thickness, are 2 to 10 feet in length, and usually flat, and three thirty-seconds inch or less in width. Distribution.-Native of central Asia and cultivated as early as 2700 B. C. In the United States it is cultivated in Wisconsin, Illinois, and Kentucky, and it has been grown in recent years in Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Iowa, Minnesota, and California. Climate. Grows best in a moderately cool, temperate climate. Not cultivated for fiber production in warm countries. Hemp seedlings will endure cold or even slight frosts as well as seedling oats or other early spring crops, and mature hemp will endure temperatures 6 to 8° below freezing (F.) without apparent injury. Abundant moisture is required in the early stages of growth, but after the root system is well established hemp will endure drought as well as other field crops of the humid climate. Lack of moisture cuts down the yield and impairs the quality of the fiber. Warm, moist weather is required for dewretting between harvest time in September and the beginning of winter. Clear, dry weather is required for threshing the seeds of seed hemp, and also for hand breaking Hailstorms are often injurious to young hemp, but wind and rain that beat down grain rarely injure hemp. Soils. Hemp requires a fertile clay loam soil. In Kentucky it is cultivated only on clay loams and silt loams overlying the Lexington limestone of the blue-grass district. In Wisconsin and Illinois it is grown chiefly on Carrington loam and to a less extent on Clyde loam. often grows well on muck lands, but produces a very poor crop of fiber. It Fertilizers.-Best fertilizer is stable manure applied to the preceding crop. Any fertilizer applied to the hemp crop itself is likely to result in coarse, uneven stalks. Hemp improves the physical condition of the soil, destroys weeds, and when retted on the ground where it grows, it returns most of the fertilizing elements. It leaves the land in excellent condition for any succeeding crop and especially for crops in which weeds may be troublesome. Rotation.-Hemp should follow corn or other intertilled crops, clover, or grass and pasture. It should not follow small grain. Seeding. Prepare the seed bed by plowing in the fall on grass or clover land and disking in the spring. Corn ground may be spring-plowed, disked, and harrowed. Sow early in the spring at about the time of sowing oats in the same region. Seed at the rate of about 1 bushel per acre, or a little less on poor soils or more on very fertile soils. Grain drills or preferably hemp drills with tubes 4 inches apart give better results than broadcasting by hand. Harvesting.-Cut about four months after seeding or when the staminate plants are in full flower. A hemp harvester cuts and spreads the stalks for retting at one operation. This machine, driven by a tractor, and two men to operate it, harvests 8 to 12 acres in a day. A self-rake reaper drawn by a tractor, with two men, averages about 5 acres per day. Self-rake reapers leave the stalks in gavels on the ground. In Kentucky, where self-rake reapers are used, the gavels of stalks are picked up and set in shocks, and spread for retting later. Retting. In the United States all hemp is dew-retted. It is spread on the ground in thin, uniform layers and left exposed to the weather for 4 to 10 weeks, or until the bark, including the fiber, separates easily from the woody interior portion of the stalk. When retted sufficiently the dew-retted stalks are picked up from the ground, "lifted," either by hand or by a machine which ties the stalks into bundles. In Kentucky the retted stalks are set up in shocks without being tied in bundles. Elsewhere the bundles of retted stalks are drawn from the field to the scutching mill where they are stacked in large sheds. Breaking and Scutching.-In Kentucky, hemp is broken on hand brakes in the field. These brakes crush and break into small pieces the interior woody part of the stalks. The fiber is there scutched or cleaned by being whipped across the brake and freed from the loosened hurds. This work can be done only in clear, dry weather. In the North, hemp is broken and scutched in the winter when more labor is available, and the work Is done inside of buildings free from interference of the weather. Scutching Mill.-First pass the stalks through artificial driers 100 feet or more in length. Feed endwise through a brake consisting of 10 to 15 pairs of heavy fluted rollers. Upon coming from the brake the fiber is turned sidewise and grasped near the center by carrying belts which take it past three pairs of large scutching drums. These drums, revolving outwardly on each side of the carrying belts, beat away the loosened hurds and short or weak fiber. The long fiber is delivered sidewise, clean and straight. It is sorted into three grades and baled for shipment. The tow beaten out by the scutching drums and also that produced from short or tangled stalks is cleaned by a tow machine, consisting of fluted rollers, beating cylinder, and shakers. U. S. D. A.-10-1-26 Yield. Under favorable conditions in this country, the yield per acre may be estimated as follows: Stalks, green, freshly cut.. Pounds 15, 000 10, 000 6, 000 650 350 Equipment.-A hemp-scutching mill, completely equipped, costing from $25,000 to $70,000, will handle the hemp from 250 to 500 acres. A hemp harvester is needed for each 100 acres, and about as many gather binders. Organization.-Hemp-scutching mills are usually operated by a company or an organization of hemp growers. This company or central organization contracts for acreage, furnishes seed, superintends the work, and furnishes machinery for harvesting and picking up the stalks. The grower is paid either on the basis of the weight of retted stalks delivered at the scutching mill or on the basis of the quantity and quality of fiber produced from the stalks. Prices. The market prices for American hemp fiber in recent years have ranged from 6 to 11 cents per pound for tow and 12 to 20 cents per pound for line. Market. Hemp is used in a number of spinning mills in this country. The annual consumption of hemp in these mills previous to 1914 ranged from about 5,000 to 8,000 tons, about half of which was water-retted hemp from Italy. There was practically no demand for American dew-retted hemp from 1920 to 1923 inclusive, but there was a keen demand at good prices in 1924 and 1925 and a weak market in 1926. Seed Supply.-All the seed of American hemp is produced in a small area in the valley of the Kentucky River. Imported seed has resulted in failure. Most of the hempseed now produced in Kentucky is from seed: of improved strains developed by the United States Department of Agriculture by selection at Arlington Experiment Farm. Henéquen The largest quantity of binder twine is made of fiber obtained from the leaves of the henequen plant. This fiber is commonly known in the trade as" sisal," because it was formerly shipped from the port of Sisal in Yucatan, but it is different from the fiber of the true sisal plant. Henequen is a native of southeastern Mexico and is also cultivated in Cuba. It is rarely seen outside of these regions. The plants produce seeds and bulbils, similar to top onions, but they are propagated chiefly by suckers which grow from the rootstocks. The suckers are set out in rows about 9 feet apart and about 6 feet apart in the row. The first crop of leaves is cut four to seven years after the suckers are planted, and after that annual or semiannual crops are cut for 10 to 20 years. Only the two outer or lower rows of leaves are cut at each harvest, the others being left to develop. The spines on the point and margins are trimmed off and the leaves tied in bundles of 50 each and taken to the clean'ing machines. After being cleaned the fiber is dried in the sun and is then ready to be baled for the market. This fiber is of a light reddish-yellow color and is 3 to 4 feet long. It is delivered at the mills in the United States, where it is made into binder twine. |