Stravinsky
IGOR FEDORO- VITCH, a Russian composer, born at Oranienbaum, in 1882. He began the study of the piano at an early age, and first attracted attention in 1908, with his "Scherzo Symphonique,” which was at once proclaimed a striking example of the new school of music. This was followed by other pieces with rapid succession. He came to be regarded as the leader of Futurist music. His works include a symphonic fantasy, ballets, and an opera.
STRAWBERRY STRAW. Apart from the importance of the straw of various cereal plants as a feeding and bedding material in agriculture, such substances also possess no inconsiderable value for packing mer-. chandise, for thatching, for making mattresses, and for door mats. Straw is also a paper-making material of some importance, and split, flattened, and col-- ored it is employed for making fancy articles. But it is in the form of plaits that straw finds its most outstanding industrial application, these being used to an enormous extent for making hats and bonnets, and for small baskets, etc.
Wheaten straw is the principal material used in the plait trade, the present great centers of which are Bedfordshire in England, Tuscany in Italy, and Canton in China. At first the plait was what is called whole straw; that is, straw was cut into suitable lengths without knots, and merely pressed flat during the operation of plaiting; and so continued till the reign of George I., when it was in. great demand for ladies' hats, and some plait was made of split straw. Since that time split straw has been chiefly used.
The English straw used in plaiting is. obtained principally from the varieties. of wheat known as the White Chittin. and the Red Lammas, which succeed best on the light rich soils of Bedfordshire and the neighboring counties. The finest and most costly plaits anywhere made the Tuscan and Leghorn plaits - are made in Tuscan villages around.
Florence, and are not split. The straw there used - very fine in the pipe and. bright in color - is produced from a variety of wheat thickly sown and grown in a light thin soil. Panama hats are not made of straw but of the leaves of a variety of palm (Carludovica Palmata).
An enormous amount of straw plait, of a common but useful quality, has been. sent into the European market from China. The exports of straw manufactures from the United States in the fiscal year ending June, 1901, were valued at $412,668; imports at $335,669.