This book covers the prespinning processes which make plant fibres suitable for textile manufacture. It includes not only familiar plant fibres such as cotton sisal and jute but also less well known fibres from plants such as Himalayan nettle pineapple leaf and kenaf which are of great value to small communities where they are used for both utilitarian and decorative purposes. As well as extraction and other prespinning processes there is background information on the growing areas soil and cl