Page:Natural history of the farm.djvu/167

THOROGHLY

oughly. Thereafter, at any time after soaking in water, the soft inner strands separate readily. Another fiber of unique sort is found in the skeleton cords of the rootstock of bracken fern. These may be separated from freshly dug rhizomes, by breaking with a hammer and stripping the cords clean.

The program of work for this study may consist of :

1. An examination of the fibers used in the nest-building of birds and animals.

2. An examination of the fiber products collected and prepared from native plants and animals, and comparisons with the fibers that are used in staple commercial products, such as ropes, yarns and twines. The actual use of some of these fiber products in spinning and weaving may be demonstrated, preferably with the simplest forms of apparatus, and products made therefrom may be shown.

The record of this study may consist of:

1. Notes on the kinds and character, and diagrams of the use, of fibers used by birds and animals in nest-building. Each species of bird or animal should be treated separately.

2. An annotated list of all the native fibers studied. The notes should state the source and nature of the fibers, their length, strength and other qualities, their uses and limita- tions, etc.

Another study on the coarse unspun materials for Plaiting, Mat-making and Basketry, may be made on similar lines, with similar lists of materials for its record. The things needed for this will be splints, withes, rods, reeds, sweet-grass, rushes, corn-husks, quills, thongs, etc. Suggestions may be had from the study of nests of birds and animals, and of the primitive products of the Indians of our own region. On the latter, The Handbook of North American Indians edited by Dr. F. W. Hodge {Bull. 30, Bureau of Amer. Ethnology, 2 vols. Washington, 1912) is a mine of information.