Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 35, Number 90, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 July 1903 — Hats Made of Rice Straw [ARTICLE]

Hats Made of Rice Straw

According to Colonel S. F. B. Morse, general traffic manager of the Southern Pacific Railroad, the Japanese colony at Port Lavaca will establish a plant for the manufacture of matting and hats from rice straw’, says a writer in the New Orleans Times-Dem-ocrat. The Japanese are the pioneer rice growers of the world, and cultivate the staple on a more scientific basis than the American farmer. In Japan every product of the rice crop Is utilized to some purpose, while in the United States the planter relies entirely upon the rice proper for his Income. “The Japanese of Port Lavaca,” said Colonel Morse, “will soon begin the manufacture of Japanese matting and the finest of hats from rice straw, and it is only a question of time till our own rice planters in Texas and Louisiana will take up this Industry, thus making the South the center of supply soy matting and straw hats of the finest texture and manufacture. The best mattings In the made in Japan, while the high grades of rice straw hats are known the world over. There are several kinds of grass growing along the Gulf, so the Japanese tell me, that can be utilized for making matting of a good grade. They tell me it is identical with that used in Japan for this purpose, and there Is no reason why this should not become a paying industry in Louisiana and Texas.”