The fibers used in the manufacture of cloth are of two different natures, vegetable and animal.
The vegetable fibers may be divided into three distinct classes:
1. The cotton, having soft, lint-like fibers, one-half to two inches in length, is obtained from the seed-pods, called "bolls."
2. The fibers from flax, hemp and jute are flexible and of soft texture, ten to one hundred inches in length.
3. The hard or leaf fibers, including manila, sisal, istle and the New Zealand fibers, all having rather stiff woody fibers, one to ten feet long, are obtained from the leaf or the leaf stem.
The animal fibers are obtained from the wool bearing animals such as common sheep, Angora and Cashmere goats and the hair of the camel.
The silk fiber is obtained from the cocoon of a caterpillar.
SILK.
Silk is the most beautiful of all fabrics. It is made from the fiber produced by the silk-worm which is a species of caterpillar. So perfectly does this little worm do its work that no spinning is required. This fiber, placed under a microscope, looks like a glass thread. It is the light playing along this smooth surface that gives to silk its beautiful luster.
Silk first came to Europe from China where the industry had been cultivated for many centuries. It is said this was begun by a woman, the wife of an Emperor, in the year 2600 B. C., and the culture of the mulberry, upon the leaves of which the silk-worm feeds and thrives, forty years later.