MECHANICS' AND USEFUL ARTS. 79 



increased in strength, and though hitherto no large quantities of 

 cloth thus prepared have been printed, owing to the expense of 

 preparation, advantage has been taken of the process to prepare 

 the cotton fabric used in the production of the endless web known 

 to calico printers as the India-rubber blanket, which, when made 

 with prepared calico, is rendered much more durable. The advan- 

 tages are that the fabric contracts about one-fifteenth linearly in 

 each direction, and the threads appear rounder, firmer, and closer 

 together ; the cloth does not reflect so much white light, but has a 

 translucent appearance. Its strength is also improved. Cotton 

 thus treated shows a superior affinity for some colors, especially 

 indigo-blue. It takes as deep a shade of blue in one dip as com- 

 mon cloth takes in six, and, generally speaking, colors look better 

 on this than on untreated cloth. The objection to the process was 

 mainly the expense of the soda ; but now that this agent has been 

 reduced in price this objection will not be so formidable. 



NEW TEXTILE FIBRES. 



Blume, Decaisne, and other French naturalists have drawn atten- 

 tion to the Ramie (Bcehmeria tenacissima) of Java, as a textile. The 

 Ramie belongs, like the hemp and the nettle, to the urticacece, and 

 was transplanted from the island of Java to the Paris Jardin des 

 Plantes, by Blume, in 1844, where it was reared in the hot-house 

 until its introduction into the more congenial climate of Mexico 

 by M. Roezl, former head of the Horticultural Institute of Bel- 

 gium, within 11 years past. It is considered that only the 

 middle and southern portions of our Gulf States will afford it a 

 suitable climate, and tlr.it in that latitude it will make three or 

 four crops a year, each equal in quantity to the most prolific 

 hemp. 



The perseverance of Mr. Roezl in domesticating the staple in 

 the western world deserves the high reward his friends anticipate 

 for it. Having first gone to Java and spent a year in familiar- 

 izing himself with the character and growth of the plant, he emi- 

 grated to Mexico with a store of its roots. On his way to the cap- 

 ital, he was robbed of his treasure by Mexican banditti, and Avas 

 obliged to write to Europe for a new supply, which was at length 

 procured through the good offices of the British navy ; but this 

 perished on the voyage to England. Again it was attempted, 

 and again the plants were killed. A third attempt succeeded; 

 but the plants had to be placed under hot-house cultivation in 

 England, to give them strength for another great voyage. In 

 1859, after 6 years of waiting and endeavor, his plants arrived 

 half dead, and with the skill of an accomplished and scientific 

 horticulturist he nursed them into life, and within 2 years found 

 himself the owner of a thrivino; 'plantation. 



The most approved machinery for cleaning flax and hemp 

 proving nnsuited to the requirements of so fine a fibre, he pro- 

 duced two implements of his own invention, by which the stalks 

 were converted, within 24 hours after cutting, into long skeins 

 of pure, white, and silk-like fibre, ready for spinning. In Feb- 



