The Fibre Plants of India, Africa, and Our Colonies (Classic Reprint)

Book excerpt: Excerpt from The Fibre Plants of India, Africa, and Our Colonies IF the author be asked, as the question will doubtless be put by many of his readers, his object in spending, from the year 1845 up to the present year 1864, so much time and labour in advocating the cultivation of Flax by British farmers, his answer must be, certainly, not the profit of publication, but as 198 Copies must be forwarded to the Right Honourable Sir C. Wood, Secretary of State for India, for gratuitous distribution in that empire, with aview to promoting the cultivation and preparation of Flax and hemp and the many fibres which are to be found in the great emplre of India; a profit under such circumstances has not been to him the thought of a moment, and as it is no more than a guide to the more important object he has in view, namely, the introduction of his patent portable machines for crimping or breaking, scutching, combing, scraping and brushing Flax, hemp, rheea fibre, pine-apple fibre, New Zealand Flax, &c., the work will 'be published at a price only barely sufficient to pay its own expenses. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.