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Show Cuban Jute Substitute. Malva fiber, the new Cuban substitute substi-tute for jute, is a product of malva blanca (Urena lobata), a large and troublesome weed. The report of United Unit-ed States Special Agent Garrard Harris Har-ris shows that in the experiments of the last two years, the extraction has been brought to a successful commercial commer-cial stage; and the liber, mixed with v jute, has been used for the soles of cloth shoes, about twenty tons having been sold last year at six cents a pound. The hope of the process owners own-ers is to make the material into the 2,000,000 sugar sacks annually needed need-ed in Cuba. It is claimed that a 2V4- . pound sack of maiva fiber can be profitably marketed at 7 to 10 cents, while the normal cost of jute sacks is 16 to 18 cents each, the war-time price having risen to 25 to 30 cents. |