Okra Fibre.

Thames Advertiser, Volume XXIII, Issue 6602, 6 May 1890, Page 2

Okra Fibre.

belonging to tbo mallow family, has hitherto heen cultivated almost entirely for its p-ds, which abound in. mucilage, and arc used chiefly to thicken soup and to form a peculiar Southern dish called gumbo. The mallow family generally have a tough fibrous inner bark, and it has long been known that, that of okra afforded a very fine, strong fibre which conld be worked up into various kinds of fabrics. For several yenrsa great number of experiments have been made with this fibre in various parts of the South, and recently sume beautiful specimens, 'as glossy and strong as ramie' were sent to the South Carolina Department of Agriculture, which at once forwarded them to the National Department of Agriculture at Washington.- Secretary Kusk, according to report, says that letters from all parts of the South indicate a general inclination to substitute the okra fibre for jule, not only in cotton bagging but for all purposes for which jute is used. : In the South the okra plant grows from three to six feet high, though the dwarf kind generally raised in the North seldom exceeds two feet. It differs from the jute and ramie plants in cue point of great economical impor* tance—in it, wood surrounds the fibre while in the. others fibre is mixed with the wood ; hence the okra fibre can be eeparated from the wood by machinery, while hitherto there lias been so much difficulty in separating the jute! and ramie- fibre by hand labour ihat it had been profitable done only by the cheap labour of China, India, and Egypt. Warned by several previous disappoint" monts, we ore by no means ready to place full reliance on all that is said in favour of any new process, plant or industry ; still it is the duty of a liveagdcultural paper to place before' its patrons at the earliest moment an account of any novel discovery or business that may be likely to engage their interest or advance their welfare. It may, therefore, be well, for same, time at any rate, to keep one's' eye on okra.—Rnral New Yorker. ! .'