FIBER INDUSTRIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 25 



efforts to produce a successful machine. The commercial history of 

 ramie, therefore, does not extend further back than 1869. 



The first French official trials took place in 1888, followed by 

 the trials of 1889, in Paris, at which the writer was present, and 

 which are recorded in the official reports of the Fiber Investigation 

 series. Another trial was 

 held in 1891, and in the 

 same year the first official 

 trials in America took 

 place, in the State of 

 Vera Cruz, in Mexico, 

 followed the next year 

 by the official trials of 

 American machines in 

 the United States, these 

 being followed by the 

 trials of 1894. Since 

 that year further prog- 

 ress in machine construc- 

 tion has been made, and a 

 third official trial should 

 be held in the near 

 future. 



The first records of 

 Chinese shipments of this 

 fiber to European mar- 

 kets show that in 1872 

 two hundred or three 

 hundred tons of the fiber 

 were sent to London, 

 valued at eighty pounds 

 per ton, or about four hundred dollars. India also sent small ship- 

 ments, but there was a light demand, with a considerable reduction 

 in price, the quotations being thirty pounds to forty pounds per 

 ton for Chinese and ten pounds" to thirty pounds for the Indian 

 product. 



Those who are unacquainted with the properties and uses of this 

 wonderful textile may peruse with interest the following paragraph 

 from Fiber Report 7, on the Cultivation of Ramie, issued by the 

 Department of Agriculture: 



" The fiber of ramie is strong and durable, is of all fibers least 

 affected by moisture, and from these characteristics must take first 

 rank in value as a textile substance. It has three times the strength 

 of Russian hemp, while its filaments can be separated almost to the 



Growth of Jute in Louisiana. 



