NETTLE CLOTH.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVII, Issue 158, 4 July 1916, Page 10

NETTLE CLOTH.

Misery acquaints a man with strange bedfellows, and if things develop as they, are shaping, we may, says the Glasgow "Evening Citizen," be lying before lonjr on nettle sheets. Surprising statements are being made about nettle cloth, but they are not incredible. Much success is claimed from using "the fibres ot nettles—the ordinary r-tinging sort." The extensive experiments carried out by Dr. Richter. of Vienna, with the cooperation of large Austrian textile factories, have apparently yielded highly successful results. The fibre has been found suitable for coarse cloth, for carpets, rugs. etc. Nettle cloth is now largely advertised in German and Austrian newspapers. There is a curious irony iri the fact of the despised nettle being now largely cultivated in Austria. But it was not always despised, even in Britain. The classi.- illustration of the tact being the oft-quoted statement of the poet Campbell: "I have slept in nettle sheets, •and dined off a nettle cloth table, and I have heard my mother say that she thought nettle cloth more durable than any other linen." The tenacious fibres of different species of nettle have been used in the Orient from time immemorial, chiefly for cloth and cordage.