90
COTTON FROM TURKEY—FLAX AND IIEMP.
[Class IV.
of 1849 aud 1850: for this the Jury awarded a PrizeMedal.
Other fair samples of cotton are contributed by F.Grima of Philippeville , Constantine (20); Haloche ofDrariah (27, p. 1261); and M. Benes (6, p. 1259): thesewere deemed worthy of Honourable Mention.
Good cotton cultivated near Lisbon is contributed byA. Sa Nogceira ( 5.98, p. 1313): this was deemed worthyof Honourable Mention. (539) and (540) are good Bra-zilian cottons from Algarve: they have a long and strongfibre, but are a little coarse and wild.
In the Russian collection there are two samples ofcotton: Bourbon cotton, exhibited by Prince NikoDjidjivadze, from lmeritia (95, p. 1369); and nativecotton from the district of Sharoor, government of Erivan,cultivated by Abdol’rza-Maram Oglt ( 94, p.1369). Thesewere both considered worthy of Honourable Mentiou.
A fine sample of cotton is shown by M. IIlrtell (p.1428from the Society Islands , which was deemed worthyof Honourable Mention.
Raw cotton, the produce of the province of Seville ,taised from Sea Island seed on irrigated lands, is exhibitedby J. B. Villars of Seville (162, p. 1339); it has a fine,long, and strong staple, of a very useful character, andwas therefore deemed worthy of Honourable Mention.
A valuable and interesting series of samples of cottonis shown in the Turkish Collection of raw produce fromvarious parts of that empire. The general character ofthese cottons is shortness of staple, and that peculiarwild and wiry fibre which is very wasteful in the mill,and "which, therefore, meets with but little approbation,generally, from our manufacturers. These cottons bumvery readily, leave but little ash, and, from the peculiarcharacter of their fibre, are remarkably fit for the manu-facture of candle-wicks; they are also employed advan-tageously in the preparation of wadding. The sample of“ Lana cardie” from Koniah (2082) is coarse, short, andwild, resembling some of the native cottons of India ; itis, however, well cleaned, as in fact all the Turkish cottons are. (See p. 69.) The localities from which thesespecimens are contributed are as follows;—
1 . Adana. 7. Damascus . i 13. Salonica.
2. Ai'din. ! 8 . Dardanelles. ; 14. Smyrna.
3. Baindir. , 9. Drama. 15. Soubougia.
4. Baluk-llissar. ' 10. Denizlou 16. Thcrsic,
5. Bigha. > 11. Koniah. ; Saida.
6 . Cassaba, i 12. Magnesia. :
The quantity of flax imported into Great Britain has,for a considerable number of years, been gradually in-creasing. Twenty years ago the annual importation wasabout 43,000 tons; ten years since it had increased toabout 65,000 tons: and at the present time it is about80,000 tons. The proportion per cent, of this quantity,imported from different countries, may be judged of bythe following table, calculated on the average imports t>fthe years 1840, 1844, and 1849:—
IS 10
1S14
1S19
69
7
74
Prussia - — -
11
10
10
9
8
6-5
6-5
7
4*
3-5
3-5
1*5
Other countries -
1
1-5
4’5 '
During the last few years, great efforts have been made toextend and improve the manufacture of this valuable fibrein various parts of the world. The increase under the lasthead in the preceding table, for 1849, is chiefly due to theimportation of flax from Egypt . It must he rememberedthat, in addition to the above-mentioned quantity of flaxannually imported, the manufacturers of England haveconsumed rather more than a quarter as much again,cultivated in various parts of the British empire, chieflyin Ireland . This proportion has also considerably in-creased during the last twenty years, and a most marked
improvement in the quality of the flax itself has alsobeen produced: a change in great measure to be tracedto the persevering and most praiseworthy efforts of theRoyal Society for the Promotion and Improvement ofFlax in Ireland . The value of flax depends, in part, onthe climate and soil in which it is cultivated; and inpart, also, on the mode in which the fibre is prepared, onthe care and skill with which the process is conducted,and on the constant and vigilant attention which is paidto it through the various stages of the operation. Ac-cording to its quality, its value varies from about 4(7. to180/. per ton.
Another circumstance which has given a considerableimpetus to the cultivation of flax, and is likely to pro-duce, ere long, even yet more marked effects, is theintroduction of the late R. B. Sehenck’s new process ofsteeping.
Formerly the separation of the fibre from the woodymatter of the stem was effected by the process of “ ret-ting,” of which there were three modifications—dew-retting, pond-retting, and river-retting. The stem ofthe plant consists, essentially, of two parts;—a woodencentre or core, the shove or boon *—and the external fibrousportion, which, when separated from the former, con-stitutes the flax. These two are cemented together by aglutinous matter, not soluble in water alone, and whichmust be got rid of by some means before the pure fibrecan be separated from the woody shove. The old modeconsisted, merely, in exposing the flax stems to air andmoisture under circumstances favourable to fermentationor incipient putrefaction, so that the glutinous matterbeing destroyed, the fibre could then he easily separatedfrom the shove. Whether this species of fermentation iseffected by exposing the flax for some weeks to theaction of the dew and rain, spread over meadows—whether it is effected by steeping it in ponds or pits ofstagnant water—or, lastly, by sinking it in large woodenframes in the current of a deep and slow-flowing river;there are serious practical difficulties, which have longdirected the attention of ingenious men to the possibilityof discovering a new and Jess objectionable mode of pre-
: paring flax. During the slow retting of the flax a largequantity of certain putrid vapours is given oft'; the
■ water, and the very air itself, are poisoned: and this,
■ alone, is no trifling objection to the process. So seriousan objection, indeed, have these putrid exhalations been
, found to the use of water-retting, that in some districts
: of Belgium, in Hainault and Namur especially, it is for-
. bidden by law, as being dangerous to “ public safetv andthe health of the inhabitants.” In Flanders , however,no such laws are in force, and it is there commonly be-lieved that dew-retted flax is, of necessity, meagre anddry. Many different modifications and peculiar modesof retting are followed in the various flax districts ofBelgium, Holland, and France ; and in different localitiesdissimilar modes of retting have long been in use, ofteninvolving very considerable variations in principle. Thus,at Courtrai , the flax crop is dried in the field and storedfor some months in barns, before it undergoes the pro-cess of retting in the river Lys. In the district of Waes,it is retted immediately after being gathered, the greenstems being at once thrown into pits of stagnant water.As, however, the whole operation, in every kind of water-retting, depends on the amount of fermentation pro-duced (which must be enough to insure the decomposi-tion of the glutinous matter, hut not enough to causeany injury to the fibre), the process is necessarily slow,tedious, and very uncertain, especially towards the closeof the operation, because then, the flax must be mostcarefully watched, in order to put a stop to the fermen-tation as soon as the desired effect is produced. A slightchange of temperature, or a few hours’ exposure, whenthe fermentation is complete, may produce the mostdisastrous effects, the fibre being in fact ruined. Dew-retting is of course even slower than water-retting; de-pending, as it necessarily does, on the nature of theseason, and being greatly retarded by long-continued dryweather. In the very dry autumn of 1810, it was foundimpossible to prepare flax by this method, and recoursewas obliged to be had to other methods of retting.