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Show FARManfflOMEte UTAH STATE EXTENSION SERVICE ACBICULTURB HOMJS KCONOHiCii By Mary Lois Reicheit Home Demonstration Aaent Current Trends In Carpeting Wool continues as the preferred pre-ferred fiber for soft floor coverings cov-erings because of its long wear, high resilience, ease of cleaning and beautiful soft colors obtainable ob-tainable by dyeing. To maintain main-tain the dwindling supplies of wool, other fibers are being used. Those used most are rayon, ray-on, nylon and cotton. 1 Carpet rayon being used today to-day is just as strong, just as long-wearing, and just as serviceable ser-viceable as wool, manufacturers claim. In some respects it is better than wool; it takes the dye better. Nylon fibers cost two to three times as much per pound as carpet wool. Because carpets use a large poundage of fiber per yard, the difference in price puts 100 per cent nylon carpet in the luxury class. So little of this nylon can be used in low-priced carpets that the product loses its fell, pile and thickness. It loses those qualities that make it feel and look like a real carpet. All-nylon carpets are used by airlines. They want a very lightweight light-weight carpet with long life. When a consumer buys a carpet in a store, low pile, light weight and long wear may not be as important to her. Cotton's color line has been a great selling factor for color carpet. Cotton carpet in the better bet-ter grades compares favorably with the wool or wool and rayon. ray-on. That does not include the low-priced cottons, but those of constructions and price, levels similar to wool. Another selling point for cotton, cot-ton, of course, is its washability. Cotton rugs are easy to clean. The main disadvantage of cotton cot-ton is that it shows soil. There also is a tendency to mat. The pile crushes and stays crushed. Just as the foundation of a house is important to the construction con-struction of the whole house, so the backing of carpet is important. im-portant. It holds the pile yarns. For decades manufacturers have used jute for' the backing of the carpet. Much of it has been imported from India. American buyers now are no longer dependent on jute. Kraft cord is being used instead. It is a strong durable backing material from cellulose fibers derived from wood pulp here in the United States and engineered en-gineered by a special process just for carpets. It is making strong inroads into the position formerly' held by jute. |