and final results,
almost as a whole, depend on the manner in which the fleece washing
had been effected. In presence of suintine, as also fatty matters, as
well as the countless kinds of acids deposited on the wool through
exudation from the body, etc., the various agents and materials cannot
act and deposit as evenly as might be desired, and the complete
obliteration of the former, therefore, becomes an absolute necessity.

For vegetable fabrics a great technical and practical knowledge is
already requisite in their cultivation itself, and before any
operations are necessary at all. One of the greatest points is the
ripeness of the fibers. It is almost an impossibility to produce
delicate colors on vegetable fabrics which were gathered
inopportunely. Numerous experiments have been made on cotton
containing smaller or larger quantities of unripe fibers, and after
the necessary preceding operations, have been dyed in rose, purple,
and blue colors, and the beauty of the shades invariably differed in
proportion to the greater or lesser quantities of unripe fibers
contained in the samples, and by a careless admixture of unripe and
unseasoned fibers the most brilliant colors have been completely
spoiled in the presence of the former. These deficiencies of unripe
vegetable fibers are so serious that the utmost precautions should be
taken, not only by planters to gather the fibers in a ripe state, but
the natural aspect of ripe and unripe fibers and their respective
differences should be known to the operators of the individual
branches in the cotton industry themselves.

The newest vegetable fabrics, as _ma_ (China grass), pina, _abaca_, or
Manila hemp, _agave_, jute, and that obtained from the palm tree, must
be tended with equal care to that of cotton. The _ma_, or China grass,
is obtained from the _Boehmeria nivea_, as also from the less known
_Boehmeria puya_. The fibers of this stalk, after preparing and
bleaching, have the whiteness of snow and the brilliancy of silk. By a
special process--the description of which we must for the present
leave in abeyance--the China grass can be transformed into a material
greatly resembling the finest quality of wool. The greatest advantage
afforded in the application of China grass is, moreover, that the
tissues produced with this fiber are much more easily washed than
silks, and in this operation they lose none of their beauty or their
quality.

The _abaca_ is produced from the