Silk cotton tree

“ Signs of silk culture began to appear in shrubberies of mulberry trees, and white and sulphur yellow cocoons were lying in the sun along the road in flat trays. Numbers of women sat in the fronts of the houses weaving cotton cloth fifteen inches wide, and cotton yarn, mostly imported from England, was being dyed in all the villages—the dye used being a native indigo, the Polygonum tinctorium. Old women were spinning, and young and old usually pursued their avocations with wise-looking babies tucked into the backs of their dresses, and peering cunningly over their shoulders. ”

“ The seed of the cotton shrub is sown by the husbandmen on the same day that they get in the harvest. When the rain has moistened the earth the shrub thrusts itself forward to a height of about two feet, and in the month of August gives forth a yellow or a red flower, which fades into a pod, which on the fortieth day after the appearance of the flower divides itself into three parts, each containing a wrapping of pure white cotton, similar in size to the ball of the silk-worm. ”

“ As they are larger than a man’s fist, and appear while the branches are yet bare, a cotton tree in flower is a very conspicuous and beautiful object. But it is of the feathered folk that visit this tree that I would write, not of the splendour of its blossom. Even before the March sun has risen and commenced to dispel the pleasant coolness of the night the cotton tree is the scene of riot and revelry. ”

“ As it is the duty of the sovereign to turn over a few furrows in the spring to stimulate the people to their agricultural tasks, so his consort should perform an analogous ceremony with her silk worms and mulberry trees. The manufactures of silk are not inferior to or less brilliant than any that are produced in Europe, and nothing can exceed the embroidery of the Chinese. The cotton plant appears to have been introduced some eight hundred years ago from Eastern Turkestan and is now cultivated most extensively in the basin of the Chiang River. ”

“ I should advise silk growers to preserve the shoots, have them barked in the best way, and the silky fibre rotted, carded, spun, and wove. M. Rouviere asserts that it will be not only fine and strong, but take the most beautiful colors. Of the bark, ropes and nets are made in the Morea, and may be applied to great advantage in the manufacture of paper, together with the foliage.
“The Canton and Asiatic seed sown this year are in a flourishing condition for plantation use, exclusive of several mulberry plantations which will be for rent, or growing silk on shares, next spring. ”

“ In itself the cotton is a pretty shrub, its yellow blossom with claret-coloured heart closely resembling the lemon-coloured hybiscus, while its bursting pods offer their soft white fluff to all comers. But a softer, silkier cotton for stuffing pillows, is that obtained from the tall cotton-tree, with the scarlet blossom and long green pod. ”

“ The shrub cotton grows in almost every country where the annual herbaceous cotton is found. Its duration varies according to the climate. In some places, as in the West Indies, it is biennial or triennial; in others, as in India, Egypt, &c., it lasts from six to ten years; in the hottest climates it is perennial; and in the cooler countries it becomes an annual.
The tree-cotton, Gossypium arboreum, grows in India, Egypt, China, the interior and western coast of Africa, and in some parts of America. ”

“ It is made to swell, to become more transparent, to lose its twisted tube-like appearance, and to become more lustrous, translucent, and elastic. Mercerised cotton gives an impression of silk to the naked eye, its microscopic appearance being changed, the fibre having swelled out and assumed a rounded rod-like appearance which, whilst resembling silk, still differs from silk by the absence of the characteristic swellings so distinctive to silk. ”

“ The soft cotton is the warm coat for the cotton plant seed-baby. The fleecy wool is the warm coat of the sheep, or the little lambs. The web from the silk worm’s cocoon is the cradle in which it sleeps. Linen is made from the stalks of the flax plant.
When these materials are spun, or twisted, into long threads, we have spool cotton and silk, wool yarns, and linen thread, for sewing. ”

“ That was a very wonderful thought to the children, and they had to talk about it a great deal before the Chief Gardener went on.
"Every bit of clothing we wear comes from the plants," he said at last. "The cotton grows like the down about the thistle seed, and the wool that grows on the sheep's back is there because [307] the sheep feeds on the green grass in summer and upon hay and grain in the winter-time. Silk is made by worms from mulberry leaves, linen is from the flax plant, and leather from the cattle that grow in the same way that the sheep grows. ”

“ Cotton is a world-wide product. It grows in all warm countries everywhere, sometimes as a tree and sometimes as a shrub. It is usually spoken of as a plant. There was cotton grown in Chicago last year. Not in a hot house, but in a back yard with very little attention. A little girl got some seed, planted it, and had some fine bolls in the fall. It is a pretty plant, and was cultivated in China nearly a thousand years ago as a garden plant. ”

“ Occasionally the curious cotton-tree is found, with wide patriarchal branches covered with delicate green leaves, or else with a long, large pod full of perfect cotton to all appearances, perhaps intents, but not purposes, for it is proved to be useless. The roots of this tree, doubtless for want of soil, grow very much out of the ground, living in the air almost as much as the branches. ”

“ From this account, and from those of Theophrastus, Aristobulus, and Nearchus, we gather the following particulars, which are agreeable to the fact: that the cotton-plants are set in the plains, and in rows like vines; that the plant is three or four feet high, and is branched, spreading, and flexible, like a dog-rose; that the leaf is palmated like that of the vine; that the capsule is three-valved, about the size of a walnut, and, when it bursts, emits the cotton, resembling flocks of wool, in which the seeds are imbedded. ”

“ As we learn from the travels of Marco Polo, the further all wayfarers in Asia wandered among eastern nations the higher they found the point of excellence which had been reached in weaving silk and gold into splendid fabrics. The silkworm lived and thrived there and the cotton plant also was in its home, its birth-place, in those regions.
Like many cities of central Asia, Mosul had earned for itself a reputation of old for the beauty of its gold-wrought silken textiles. Cotton grew all around in plenty ”

“ It is not fair to pay the price for an all-new wool material if shoddy and mungo and flocks, which are all old wool and waste, have been used. The per cent of new wool should be told and the price made accordingly.
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Silk is sometimes sold as reeled silk when waste from cocoons which is called spun silk has been used for the woof or filling thread.
In finishing of materials, adulteration is sometimes practiced. In pressing cotton or linen, a luster is given to the surface. Cotton can be made to appear like silk or like linen, and is often sold for those fibers. ”

“ It is employed for clothing in every part of the world and by nearly all peoples. Cotton is used mainly also for body coverings, but it is inferior to wool for protection against cold. It is used by practically all peoples, [Pg 106] savage and civilized, outside of the frigid zones. Linen is inferior both to cotton and wool for clothing; its use is also restricted by its great cost. Silk is used mainly for ornamental cloths. Hemp is used mainly for cordage, and the use of ramie, jute, and sisal hemp is confined mainly to the manufacture of very coarse cloths and rugs. ”

“ Mercerized yarn is employed in almost every conceivable manner, not only in the manufacture of half-silk and half-wool fabrics, and in lustrous all-cotton tissues, but also in the production of figures and stripes of cotton goods having non-lustrous grounds. Mercerized yarn used in connection with silk is difficult to detect except by an expert eye.
Characteristics of a good piece of Cotton Cloth. A perfect cotton fiber has little convolutions in it which give the strong twist and spring to a good thread. In this respect the Sea Island cotton is the best. ”

“ In a short time the cotton swells and becomes lustrous, approaching silk in general appearance, and this effect is augmented by the evenness of the surface of the thread. This type of yarn lends itself to the production of brilliant colours and is admirably adapted to such articles as knitted coats, scarves and other types of the fancy trade in knitted goods, being best suited for summer wear on account of their coolness. ”

“ I have already said that cotton is inferior in its qualities to silk and flax, except in the production of transparent muslins. Its peculiarity is its tendency to “crinkle” or crumple in wearing, therefore it does not present a smooth flat surface, except by means of dressing, which unfits it for clinging effects but suits printed patterns. Such stuffs as workhouse sheeting, imitating certain fabrics of the sixteenth century, and which it has been the fashion of late to cover with embroidery, do not repay, by effective beauty, the trouble bestowed upon them. ”

“ It is a property of the cotton fibre that it can be made to imitate more or less either woollen, linen or silk goods, and since cotton is the cheapest fibre of the lot it follows that a considerable amount of cotton yarn is used in combination with these other fibres, in order to produce cheaper fabrics. ”

“ Many are skilled in embroidery, working beautiful patterns in gold and silver thread, and in worsted, cotton, and silk. Both cotton and silk fabrics are woven at the looms, and many of the embroidered goods are taken to Burmah, where they fetch a high price.
The cotton is grown in the gardens surrounding the house, or purchased in the neighbourhood. Some of the silk is produced from the cocoons of the local silk-worms, and the rest is brought by the Chinese from China. The dyes used by the people to within the last few years were solely vegetable ”

“ Cotton has no such partially transparent sheath. What light is reflected is so broken up that the color is poor. Compare three plain woven crimson textures made of silk, wool, and cotton respectively. The first literally shines; luster, brilliance, and richness are the elements of its coloring. Though bright, it lacks that fulness and depth of color which belongs to the wool product, whose millions of filaments, closely compounded, all tinted alike, possess a peculiar bloom and weight of color not to be found either in the silk or cotton article. ”

“ Possibly it originated in the Valley of Roses or by the banks of the sacred Ganges. The weaving of silk India appears to have borrowed from China, but when or how it first wove silk we cannot tell, any more than we can tell when first it wove its marvellous gold brocades or gauzy muslins. It was weaving cotton in times beyond the realm of history, and continues weaving it to-day all over the Panjab, Sindh, Rajputana, Oudh, Bengal, the Central Provinces, in Assam, Bombay and Madras. ”

“ The white, fluffy material grows in long bunches, loosely attached to stems, and the fibre is very short. At the lightest breeze that stirs the branches, tiny bits of it take to flight, and one tree will shed cotton for weeks. ”

“ I met with this sort of cotton afterwards at Timor (where it was ripe in November) and nowhere else in all my travels; but I found two other sorts of silk-cotton at Brazil, which I shall there describe. The right cotton-shrub grows here also, but not on the sandbank. I saw some bushes of it near the shore; but the most of it is planted in the middle of the isle, where the inhabitants live, cotton-cloth being their chief manufacture; but neither is there any great store of this cotton. There also are some trees within the island, but none to be seen near the seaside ”

“ The cotton-growing business in India owes a good deal to this garden, as it has helped the distribution of the plants, and made a great many experiments to learn the variety of cotton-tree best adapted to any particular soil. Most of the Indian cotton is grown on a bush, as in the United States, and has to be renewed every year from the seed ”

“ The appearance of a well-cultivated cotton-field, if it has escaped the ravages of insects and the destruction of the elements, is of singular beauty. Although it may be a mile in extent, still it is as carefully wrought as is the mold of the limited garden of the coldest climate. The cotton-leaf is of a delicate green, large and luxuriant; the stalk indicates rapid growth, yet it has a healthy and firm look. Viewed from a distance, the perfecting plant has a warm and glowing expression. ”

“ Large quantities of comparatively coarse silk are made from silk so produced. In Assam silk is still the national dress, and forms the common costume of the women, but the men are relinquishing it as an article of daily wear in favour of cotton. Amongst the Burmese, however, silk still holds its own. Owing to disease among the silk-worms the industry has declined of recent years; and in 1886 an inquiry was held, which resulted in putting the silk-rearing industry of Bengal on a better basis. ”