Historic, archived document Do not assume content reflects current scientific knowledge, policies, or practices, iV j. FIBER PRODUCTION IN THE WESTERN HEMISPHERE By LYSTER H.DEWEY Ueht serial record AUG IS 1943 ' -nJRE VJ.S UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE MISCELLANEOUS PUBLICATION No. 518 1943 ft UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE MISCELLANEOUS PUBLICATION No. 518 WASHINGTON, D. C. - AUGUST 1943 FIBER PRODUCTION IN THE WESTERN HEMISPHERE By LYSTER H. DEWEY Formerly Botanist in Charge Division of Fiber Plant Investigations jreau of Plant Industry, Soils, anJ Agriculture! Engineering Agricultural Research Administration UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE WASHINGTON : 1943 For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U. S. Government Printing Office Washington, D. C. - Price 30 cents CONTENTS Page Page Introduction 1 Long or multiple-celled fibers—Con. Classification of plant fibers 1 Hard or leaf fibers— Continued. General observations on hard and soft Zamandoque 45 fibers 2 Chaparral yucca 45 Names of fibers and fiber plants 2 Pitafioja 46 Long or multiple-celled fibers 4 Phormium 48 Hard or leaf fibers 4 Abaca 50 Henequen - 4 Palm and palmlike fibers 54 Sisal 12 Bahia piassava 54 Letona 18 Para piassava 55 Mezcal 20 Cabbage palmetto 55 Zapupe 21 Scrub palmetto 57 Cantala 22 Corojo palm 57 Lechuguilla.. _' 24 Yarav 58 Jaumave lechuguilla 26 Toquilla 59 Furcraea 28 Soft or bast fibers 62 Piteira 28 Hemp 63 Cabuva ' 31 Cadillo 69 Fique 32 Jute 71 Chuchao 36 Ramie 74 Cocuiza 37 Short or one-celled fi bers 79 Pitre 38 Kapok 80 Yucca and related plants 38 Pochote . 83 Common yucca 39 Northern pochote 84 Soapweed yucca 39 Palo borracho 86 Palmilla 39 Samohu 87 Banana yucca 41 Miscellaneous fibers 87 Mohave yucca 42 Broomroot 87 Palma pita. 42 Treebeard 89 Palma barreta 43 Bibliography 93 ii Miscellaneous Publication No. 518 Issued August 1943 Fiber Production in the Western Hemisphere By Lyster H. Dewey 1 2 I ormerly bolanist in charge, Du ision of Fiber Plant Investigations, Bureau of Plant Irul Soils, and Agricultural Engineering, Agricultural Research Adrninslration INTRODUCTION CLASSIFICATION OF PLANT FIBERS Cotton rind flax, obtained from plant-, and woo] and silk, of animal Nearly all plant fibers are readily origin, are known to nearly everyone, classified by their structure and their hit there are many other fibers, im- origin in different parts of the plant portant in commerce for special uses into the following groups: or used locally, that are not so widely 1. Long or multiple-celled fibers: known. This publication treats of plant fibers other than cotton and flax (a) Hard or leaf fibers: hard ami stiff - that are now produced commercially in in texture, extending lengthw through the pulpy tissues of 1 the Western Hemisphere and include- leaves in- leaf stems of mono- brief note- about others produced on cotyledonous or endogenous (in- a smaller scale. More than a thousand growing) plants: Henequen, sisal, species of American plant- have piteira, fique, yucca, pita floja, yielded fibers of local u-e-. but only a and abaca, and the palm fibers, treated in this publication as a -mall number yield fillers that actually separate -1. i group. I See p- enter commerce. The native produc- tion of fiber- by Laborious hand meth- (6) Soft or bast fibers; -"ft and flexible in texture, extending through the ods for local use i- decreasing, as inner hark of stem- or main stalks; roads and traffic into hitherto isolated of dicotyledonous or exogenous are in machine-made places bringing (outgrowing) plants: Hemp, ca- twine-, ropes, and fabrics. dillo, jute, and ramie. 2. Short >» one-celled fibers Seed hairs or 1 Retired in 10?,.-,. hairs inside seed -I'll.' Division <>f Fiber Plant Investigations was produced pods: Kapok, merged in 1934 with the Division <>t Cotton and pochote, samohu. Other Fiber Crops and Diseases. 'I'h.' Illustrations in this publication air from 3. Miscellaneous fibers Roots and -'cm-: mis inn through ill'- courtesy of the Pan American Broomroot ami treebeard. Dnion and made from photographs furnished bj tin' Pan American I nlon and ii"- United States Depart- ment »( Agriculture. Note. For Spanish edition of tins material Dewey, Lyster a Fibbas vmet4 i.\ imi rica, Translated bj Maria \ Ruls&nchea Mast era. Cnlfin Panamerlcana, Officlna de C< pi Agrlcola Pub, Agrlc. Noa. 137-140, 101 pp., Ulua. W aahlngton, 1041. 1 MISCELLANEOUS PUBLICATION 5 IS, U. S. DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ON tissues in the inner bark of the stems HARD AND SOFT FIBERS are separated from these materials after the tissues and gums have been broken The plants yielding hard fibers, such down by retting. Retting is a biological as henequen, sisal, abaca, piteira, and process, and in actual practice the ret- the various palms, are almost exclu- ting, or rotting, is effected by certain whereas, of those yield- sively tropical, groups of bacteria that are always ing soft fibers, some, like flax and hemp, present. After the outer bark and tis- best in the cooler regions of the grow sues surrounding the soft fibers have Temperate Zone, and others, like jute been disintegrated by retting, the fibers and ramie, in the warmer parts of the themselves must be separated and Temperate Zone. The only important cleaned by mechanical processes. The outside the hard fibers produced Trop- processes of beating and scraping, to ics are in Zealand, and phormium, New separate fibers from stalks of hemp, istles, northern Mexico. None of the in cadillo, and similar plants after they soft fibers are produced commer- the have been retted, are called scutching. cially in the Tropics. Numerous machines have been devised the Old the records indi- In World for separating soft fibers from stalks cate that the soft fibers flax and hemp without retting. This process is called the first produced, flax at least as were decortication. The soft fibers thus pre- long ago as 3000 B. C, in central Europe pared must afterward be treated chem- and at about the and in Egypt, hemp ically or retted to reduce the gums and in northern China. In the same time other substances that are subject to fer- New World, henequen and sisal in the mentation and cause trouble even after Peninsula, and other hard Yucatan the fibers have been spun into yarns. the leaves of agaves, fur- fibers from During the past 75 years a great deal of yuccas, bromelias appear craeas, and research has been devoted to the pro- been the earliest used. The to have duction of bast fibers by means of decor- Hemisphere has contributed to Western tication and subsequent chemical treat- the world's fiber production all hard- ment. Much progress has been made, except abaca fiber plants, and phorm- especially in recent years, but thus far ium these include henequen, sisal, can- ; these processes have not fully passed tata, piteira, and others less important the experimental stages. commercially. However, none of the Hard fibers are used chiefly for coarse important soft-fiber plants are native twines and for cordage. Soft fibers are to America. used for finer twines, for thread, and Hard fibers are separated b}r mechan- for yarns to be woven into fabrics. ical processes directly from the pulpy tissues of the freshly cut green NAMES OF FIBERS AND FIBER leaves; the}' are then dried and baled PLANTS for shipment. In some places the leaves are rotted in water so that the The confusion of names used to desig- pulp may be scraped away more easily, nate fibers and fiber-producing plants but this method produces fiber of in- often causes uncertainty and sometimes ferior quality. Soft fibers surrounded financial loss. The same common name by pectic gums as well as thin-walled is often used to designate different FIBER PRODUCTION IN THE WESTERN HEMISPHERE kinds of filters, and different names are to several dilferent hard fibers similar used to designate the same fiber or to the true sisal. Generally geographic fiber-producing plant. The name "ma- names indicating the origin of the guey" is used in many parts of Mexico, fiber, as "Java sisal." •African sisal," Central America, and the West Indies or "Mexican sisal." suggest the kind to designate nearly all of the larger of fiber only to one who knows which leaved species of Agave and Furcraea, kind is produced in each locality. The and this use has extended to the Philip- word "hemp" is also very much over- pine Islands, where an Agave species worked to designate numerous long introduced from Mexico has become an fibers as well as the true hemp to which important fiber-producing plant. In it was first applied. 1 Yucatan the name "maguey' is rarely In this publication an effort has been used, but the name "henequen" is ap- made to give dist inctive common names plied not only to the Ago re species cul- for each different kind of fiber. In all tivated there for fiber production but cases these names were chosen from also to species of Agave and Furcraea among those that have been actually that do not yield fibers of any value. used; no new names were coined. The The word "pita," of Carib origin, is names most commonly used were pre- used in many localities from Brazil to ferred, provided they are distinctive, northern Mexico to designate so many correct in accordance with the facts, different kinds of fibers and fiber plants and do not include a geographic name. thai it is almost synonymous with the It seems rather absurd to call a plant English word "liber." Likewise the (toquilla) a "Panama hat palm." when word "cabuya," also spelled "cabulla," it is known that the plant is not a palm is used from Costa Rica to Ecuador to and the hats are not made in Panama, designate several different species of or to call a fiber (abaca) "Manila F uvci (tea.