英文科学读本 第六册·Lesson 53 Plant-Fibers for Spun and Woven Goods

Lesson 53 Plant-Fibers for Spun and Woven Goods

Materials for an immense variety of textile fabrics, as well as for rope and cordage of all kinds, are provided by the fibers of the cotton, flax, hemp, and jute plants.

The woolly down from the pods of the cotton-plant yields such materials as calico, nankeen, muslin, fustian, hosiery, and lace.

Fustian is the common name for a large number of heavy materials, used principally for working men's clothing, such as corduroy, moleskin, fustian, velveteen, velveret, and beaverteen.

Hosiery includes, not only stockings, as the name denotes, but all those textile fabrics made by a kind of knitting or chain-stitch, altogether different from the regularly crossed threads of the warp and woof in woven goods.

Cotton supplies materials for clothing man in all parts of the world. Indeed, the cotton-plant may justly take its place among the most valuable of Nature's products. It is by far the most abundant and important of all materials used for textile fabrics.

The cotton-plant grows in most of the hot countries of both the Old and the New World. There are three varieties of the plant—the tree, the shrub, and the herb.

The cotton-tree grows to the height of 15 or 20 feet, and yields the finest and most valued cotton. It grows on the shores of Florida and the adjoining islands, and is sometimes known as Sea Island cotton. It is also called long-staple cotton, from the length of its fiber.

The cotton-tree grows also in India, China, and North Africa. The Hindus make from it a fine, silky cloth for turbans.

The cotton-shrub is a woody, perennial plant, about the size of our currant-bush.

Most of the cotton grown in the United States of America is of the herbaceous variety. The plant is an annual, and grows from seed sown in March or April. It attains the height of about 2 feet, bears bright green leaves, and blooms in June.

The flower is very like hollyhock, and when it falls it leaves behind a pod about the size of a walnut, containing seeds embedded in a loose, white, woolly down—the cotton of commerce. The pods are picked in the autumn by women and children, who go through the plantation from plant to plant, withbags or baskets slung round their necks. It is estimated that in England alone no less a sum than £100,000,000 sterling is sunk in the manufacture of cotton goods. There are not less than half a million looms at work in the cotton centers, and in a busy time 10,000,000 yards of cotton cloth can be turned out in one day.

Some idea of the number of persons employed in the manufacture may be formed from the estimate that between 30 and 40 millions sterling are paid annually in wages and the cost of working. In 1886 England imported 671,026 tons of raw cotton, and the same year they exported cotton yarn alone to the value of 11.5 millions sterling, and cotton goods to the value of 57 millions sterling, besides what we retained for our own use.

Before the cotton-down is fit for the manufacturer the seeds must be removed. These seeds are about the size of grape-seeds, and contain much oil. This oil is expressed, and forms an important article of commerce—cotton-oil. It is used for burning in lamps, for oiling machinery, for soap-making, and as a substitute for olive-oil. The residue, after the oil is removed, forms a valuable oil-cake for feeding cattle.

The textile material provided by the flax-plant comes from the bast-fibers of the inner bark of the stem, and is manufactured into linen, duck, diaper, damask, sheeting, towelling, huckaback, drill, check, drabet, and sail-cloth.

The rougher and commoner fiber is made into sacking, and a mixture of flax with cotton gives the useful fabric—union. The plant yields another product besides the bast-fibers of the stem. Its seeds form a valuable article of commerce. When pressed they yield linseed-oil and oil-cake for feeding cattle.

The mode of cultivation depends entirely upon the special kind of product in view. Warm climates produce the finest seeds; temperate climates the best fiber for the manufacturer.

The flax-plant is extensively grown in the north of Ireland, but England imports every year upwards of 100,000 tons of foreign flax, more than half of which comes from Russia. The rest is supplied by Belgium, Holland, and North Germany. Although Russia sends the largest supply, Belgium gives the finest quality of fiber.

The chief flax-markets in the United Kingdom, and the chief centers of the flax and linen trade, are Belfast for Ireland, Dundee for Scotland, and Leeds for England. Ireland is by far the most important of the three countries as regards this trade.

In addition to what is retained for home consumption, England exports annually about 200 million yards of linen and other flax fabrics, besides immense quantities of yarn, and thread for lace and sewing purposes. During the year 1893 the total value of linen manufactures amounted to £4,165,902, and linen yarn alone to the value of £890,124 was produced.

The bast-fibers of the hemp-plant are used for making rope and cordage, canvas, sacking, sail-cloth, floor-cloth, and other coarse, strong fabrics. Most of the hemp used in manufactures is imported from Russia, India, the Philippine Islands, Holland, Germany, and the United States. Englands total imports amount to about 1,000,000 cwts. The seeds yield oil and oil-cake.

Jute is another bast-fiber. It was practically unknown in England till the year 1840, but it has very rapidly come into prominence as a material for textile fabrics. During the year 1893 they exported jute-manufactured goods and yarn to the value of £2,848,283, in addition to what was kept for home use. Annual imports of raw jute fibre from India alone amount to upwards of 300,000 tons. Dundee is the head center of the jute manufacture in Great Britain.