Evening Republican, Volume 15, Number 269, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 November 1911 — COTTON TREES OF BRAZIL [ARTICLE]

COTTON TREES OF BRAZIL

_ A - ■ , ■ i. 1 . growing wild in certain regions two ayiaalaa Itpaa which it exists hTthe "united States and toother countries, the idea of cotton being from-trees presents a GcCluEu XaOVclXy• WOt vuO iwßv tv y markable fact about these trees to; weir oecuricuce in precisely tuurw possible or at least difficult to grow ordinary cotton. No other country tn the world possesses so large an area of land which may be utilized for tho growing of cotton as 'does Brazil, and that in other areas It is possible to cultivate trees for the production of cotton fibers-must appeal to the tex-tile-producing world as indicating that Brazil must be reckoned with as a future source of large quantities of the world's cotton supply. One of these trees to called “Barraguda,” from its being barrelshaped, after the peculiar, swelled trunk which is its characteristic. The tree grows twenty-five to thirty-five feet in height, tapering from the great bulge in the trunk to a very slender one, from which branches form about twelve feet above the ground. The trunk is entirely covered with hard and sharp thorns. The pods in which the cotton grows are five to eight Inches long and two to four inches in diameter. The fiber is coarse and white and adheres closely to the seeds, which are somewhat smaller than peas. It is a long and a strong fiber, „ and while too coarse for use tn textiles of any degree of fineness, it would lend itself admirably to the fabrication of blankets, cotton twine, and a large variety of other materials. The habitat of this tree Is in central and southern Bahia, and it grows to a lesser extent in the State of Pernambuco.—Consular Reports.