January i, 1884.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST, 



461 



the raw material iu rhea grass, plantains, or aloes, as 

 may be considered most desirable. Amid the ex- 

 periments in rubber cultivation and preparation, we trust 

 the equally important industry which might be 

 established in fibres will not be forgotten, and, with 

 the aid of the several sldlful mechanists in the country, 

 headed by Messrs. John Walker & Co.. our planters 

 and others ought not to find much difficulty in ar- 

 riving at practical results, and in ascertaining whether 

 :he proposed industry will stand the " will it 

 pay ?" test. 



We are indebted to several gentlemen, notably to 

 Messrs. Kay-Shuttlcworth and Shaw Kennedy, for 

 sending us pamphlets and papers en the subjects as 

 well as samples of fibres and cloth. Those brought 

 back by Mr. Kay-Shuttleworth on his return from 

 Europe have been seen and admired at our office by 

 a great many jjersons, and besides all the inform- 

 ation we publish today we have, in the sliape of corre- 

 spondence and papers, a good deal more still to dis- 

 pose of. In the Society of Arts Journal for August 

 21st last, there was a very succinct paper on the 

 fibre plants of India by Mr. J. W. Minohin of 

 Ootacamund for \' hich we must endeavour to find 

 room in the Tropical Agriculturist, He speaks of 

 the rhea as being cultivated on many coSee estates 

 in India and Ceylon, but that " it requires rich un- 

 exhausted soil." "It grows with the greatest vigour 

 in damp warm climates," so it ought to do well in 

 many districts hero, and indeed it is to be found 

 freely growing in the island, especially on the banks 

 of streams. An enquiry is contained in tho following 

 letter from a Matale planter which has been lying 

 by us far too long : — 



Dear Sir, — Could you or any of your correspondents 

 inform me, whether the Mauritius plai;lers, who, I under- 

 stand, use the gratteuse for the prepartion of aloe fibre, 

 steep the aloe leaf in any chemicals before putting it 

 through the machine ? If so can they give a description 

 of the solution? I have here a gratteuse, aud previous ex- 

 periments with the green leaf are not at all a success. The 

 pulp on a newly cut leaf does not come off to the extent 

 it should do, and without a "steep" of some sort I fail 

 to see how any machine can clean tlie fibro sufficiently for 

 the market. I think m.altcrs of these niacliines ought to 

 guarantee the successful timiout of clean fibre, as my 

 endeavours to get a good sample from the green leaf has 

 failed in all my experiments. I have not seen a new ma- 

 chine at wo-k— Smith's I think, but as it is a bar stripper 

 on the same pr.uciple ss the gratteuse. I have not much 

 faith in its success, unless the maker albo states tlie kind 

 of " steep " to I e used. I would be very glad to have any 

 information about tho ■Mauritius way they clean the fibre 

 from auy of yr- :r coni spondents a« anytliing I have yet 

 observed passin.' tdrough your paper doia not touch upon 

 the main thing ivanted, the proper iteep. 



If this were known, I am sure our aloe fibre cultivation 

 would extend.— Tours truly, 



Aloe Fibre Solution. 

 Now this is just the want— some chemical process 

 in aid of the machine — which, as our ktest inform- 

 ation from Europe shews, has just been supplied by 

 a distinguished French chemist. Mr. F. Shaw-hennedy 

 Bent us the English translation of M. Favier's pam- 

 phlet, aud called our attention to the fact that the 

 cultivation of tlie rhea or ( hinese nettle is specially 

 recommended for old coifee estates. But M. Favier 

 although most successful iu the decortication of this 

 nettle or grass, nevcrtlieless failed to deliver the 

 resulting fibre of such uniformly good quality as 

 to constitute a commercially reliable article. This 

 ^ant has been supplied by I'rofcssor Fr^my, and 



curiously enough among the fibre samples sent us 

 by Mr. Shaw- Kennedy is one of " Kamie decortic- 

 ated in a Fr^my bath." What the " Fr^my bath " 

 is will be learned from the following account 

 which appeared in a recent number of the London 

 Times : — 



Rhea, which is also known imder the name of ramie, is a 

 textile plant which was indigenous to China and India. 

 It is perennial, easy of cultivation, .ind produces a remark- 

 ably strong fibre. The problem of its cultivation has long 

 being solved, for within certain limits rhea can be grown 

 in any cUmate. India and the British colonies offer un- 

 usual facilities, and pre^ent vast and appropriate fields for 

 that enterprise, while it can be, and is, grown in most 

 European countries. There have been difficulties iu tho way 

 of decorticating the stems of this plant, and the Indian 

 Cioverument, in 1869, offered a reward of £5,000 for the 

 best machine for separating the fibre from the stems and 

 bark of rhea in its green or freshly cut state. The offer 

 of £.5,000, in 1SG9, led to only one machine beuig submitted 

 for trial, although several competitors had entered their 

 names. This machiue was that of Mr. (Jreig, of Edin- 

 burgh, but after careful trial by General (then Lieu- 

 tenant-Colonel) Hyde it was found that it did not fulfil the 

 conditions laid down by the Government, and therefore 

 the full prize of £.i,000 was not awarded. In considera- 

 tion, however, of the inventor having made a bana-fide 

 and meritorious attempt to solve the question, he was 

 awarded a donation of £1,.500. The Government, in 1881, 

 re-ofltered the prize of £.5,000. Another competition took 

 place, at which several macliines were tried, but the trials 

 as before, proved bai-ren of any practical results. The 

 strength of some rhea fibre from Assam experimentud was 

 in 18.52 by Dr. Forbes Eoyle, as compared with St. Peters- 

 burg hemp, was in the ratio of 280 to 160, while the 

 wild rhea from Assam was as high as 343. But, above 

 and beyond this, rhea has the widest range of possible 

 appUcations of any fibre. 



Last year, however, witnessed the solution of the question 

 of decortication in the green state in a satisfactory manner 

 by M. A. Favier's process,as reported by us at the time. This 

 process consists in subjecting the plant to the action of 

 steam for a period varying from 10 to 25 minutes, ac- 

 cording to the length of time the plant had been cut. 

 After steaming, the fibre and its adjuncts were easily 

 stripped from the wood. The importance and value of 

 this inven'ion will be realised, whe.i it is remembered that 

 the plant is cultivated at long distances from the localilies 

 where the fibre is prepared for the market. The consequence 

 is that for every hundredweight of fibre, about a ton of 

 woody material has to he transported. Nor i.s this theoaly evil, 

 for the gummy matter in which the fibre is embedtled becomes 

 drid up during the transport, and the separation of the fibre 

 is thus rendered diificult, and even impossible, inasmuch 

 as some of the fibre is left adhering to the wood. M. 

 Favier's process greatly siraplifico the com-ncrcial production 

 of the fitire up to a certain point, tor. at a very small 

 cost, it gives the manufacturer the whole of the fibre in the 

 plant treated. But it still stops abort of what is 

 required, in that it dehvers the fibre in ribands, with 

 its ceiuentitious matter and outer skin attached. To 

 remove this, various methods have been tried, bnt, 

 a;; far we are aware, w.tliout general succeRS— that 

 is to say, the fibre cannot always be obtained of 

 such a uniformly good quality as to constitute a com- 

 mercially reliable article. Such was the position of the 

 question when, about a year ago, the whole case was 

 submitted to the distinguished French cliemist. Professor 

 Fremy, member of the Institute of Frn nco, who is well- 

 known for his researches into the nature of fihrous plants, 

 and the question of their preparation f.ir the market! 

 Professor Fremy thoroughly investigated the matter from 

 a chemical point of view, and at length brought it to a 

 successful and, apparently, a practical is.ue. 



One great bar to previous success, would appear to have 

 been the absence cf exact knowledge as to the nature 

 of the constituents of that portion of the plant which con- 

 tains the fibre, or, in other words, the casing or bark 

 surrounding the woody stem of the rhea. As detemiiiied 

 by Professor Fremy, this consists of the cutose, or outer 

 skin, within which is the vasculose contaming the fibre 

 and othei conjoined matter, known as cellulose, between 

 which aud the woody stem js tJie fectose, or g m, Trhub 



