572 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[February i, 1884. 



interfered with the workmg of the machine ! This gentle- 

 man had been putting in roots and all, and then complained 

 that the outtm-n was not so good as might be expected. 



"Returning to rhoea, what are its prospects «o7(j? I have 

 indicated tliat, for the last 25 years or more, the great 

 search has been for some machine to clean it. That mach- 

 - ine we have now got, or, at least, I believe so. I think 

 the facts which I have mentioned point clearly in this 

 direction. I started by pointing out that it was not possi- 

 ble to sell China grass in this country under £49 to £50 

 a ton, that is to say, the cost of preparing it by hand 

 prevented its being sold at a cheaper rate. To clean one 

 ton of China grass, it would take upwards of a thousand 

 Chinamen one day, that is to say, each pair of hands can 

 cleim only from one to two pounds. In experiments which 

 were carried out by ilr. Thompson and Mr. Mylne at 

 Bahf^ea, they found that only a few ounces couid be cleaned 

 by one person — nothing, in fact, at all approachiug the 

 two pounds which the Chinaman cleans, which is a con- 

 sitlerable quantity, and the result of great practice. If, 

 however, we get a machine which will do it, as I believe 

 we now have, it will reduce the price very considerably. 



M'"ith regard to the cost of working, I will mention to 

 you what appears to me to be a fair estimate, after making 

 every allowance, including the cost of labour, the carriage 

 and cutting of the material, the cost connected with the 

 engine, aud of fuel, &c., and this estimate shows that it is 

 possible to clean fibre with it at a cost of from about £7 

 to £1 a ton calculated on 100 lb. of fibre for the working 

 day per machine. Suppose it is only 50 lb., which is de- 

 pendent, as I said before, on the assiduity with which the 

 machine is woi'ked, it will only come to probaijly between 

 £10 and £12. Such being the case: the result will be that 

 Chin I grass may be introduced at a much cheaper price 

 than hitbt'rto. What that price will be I cannot say,'but 

 I think it will be possib'e to sell at £30 to £35 a ton — 

 possibly less; still it will always be an expensive cultiv- 

 ation. I am satisfied that those who think they are going 

 to grow this plant at a very cheap rate, are mistaken. 

 Great care must be taken in its cultivation, but in any 

 case it wi!l still always command a good price. The demand 

 for it is likely to be very large, and it will, in consequence, 

 continue to fetch a good price; those who grow it need, I 

 believe, have no fear upon that point. 



As to the yield per acre of rheea, there are no fresh 

 frets since I went into the question for my report in the 

 > ear 1S75. I am aware that there are some notable facts 

 v.hich have been founded upon experiments made in Al- 

 1,'iers. Estimates have been made, showing that you could 

 ■jet forty tons per acre, but I think these will requu'e to 

 be verified before we can accept them. Any way, I do 

 not see that we can conclude at the present — I hope I 

 shall be mistaken— that each crop will yield more than 250 lb. 

 per acre. You may, however, obtain three crops, or even 

 four in the year, which would bring it to 1,000 \h. per acre. 



The question of cutting and storing of the plant are 

 practical (lucstions which will have to be considered here- 

 after. One of my objects, in the experiments which I 

 carried out in Paris, was to determine, as far as I could, 

 the height to which tlie plants should be grown in order 

 to givu the largest yield of fibre. Some people say that 

 the plant should be grown to the height of 6 feet; some 

 say they should not be more than 3 feet; but the results 

 of my experiments, as you will find from the table at the 

 end of my paper, point to the fact that 3^ to 4 feet is 

 about the right height to grow them. If" the length is 

 not more than 2 feet, the fibre is very fine, but the chances 

 are you get more waste, and not such a good percentage 

 of fiiwe. In Che long stems the fibre is not so fine as in 

 the medium ones; in short, the medium stems from 3 ft 

 to 4 ft. are about the right length to cut. This has an 

 important bearing upon the question of the number of 

 crops wliich can be obtained. It is clear that if you 

 allow the plant to grow 6 or 8 feet high, you cannot 

 expect to get as many crops as when only 4 feet. More- 

 over, there is this characteristic ; all these stalks which 

 you see here are from the same plant, that is to say, the 

 shoots have come from the .same root. Having determined 

 the proper length, the stems should be gathered accordingly, 

 only thiise being cut which have attained the right height; 

 iu this way a continuous crop may possibly be secured. 



We find that with China grass there is a great variety in 



quality. Here is a sample of short China grass, and here 

 are others which are much longer. These variations in 

 quality gives rise to the complaints which are frequently 

 made. If you grow it, however, a certain standard length, 

 it will be likely to produce it of a definite quaUty, and 

 that is what is wanted for commercial purposes. 



"With regard to the comparison of the machine-prepared 

 rheea fil>rp and ordinary China grass — here is a sample of 

 the former, and those who have an opportunity of examin- 

 ing it will find the fibres are separate, and nearly fit for 

 spinning. There is a very small amount of gum in these 

 fibres, and if you take the China grass in your fingers, 

 you will find that it is very stifl"", owing to the large quantity 

 of gum that is left in it. In the machine this gum is washed 

 out ; but by merely scraping, you leave it in. The amount 

 of gummy matter in the machine-prepared sample is about 

 10 per cent, as compared with from 25 to 35 per cent in 

 China grass. I feel satisfied that in this sample, had the 

 stems been operated up'Ui when freshly cut, the proportion 

 of gum would have been consideraoly less. If it is 19 per 

 cent in this, I should say that if it had been cut fresh 

 it would have gone down to 15 per cent or even less; but 

 these are points upon which I hope to make experiments in 

 India, where I shall have an opportunity of doing so on a 

 larger scale. 



Now, what is rheea good for? It is difficult to say what 

 it is not good for. It is the strongest fibre in nature. 

 According to the experiments made by Dr. Forbes Royle, 

 it is two and a-half times as strong as the best Russian 

 hemp. Compare it with flax. JIany years ago, one of the 

 largest flax spinners in the kingdom spent a considerable 

 sum, £20,000 I believe, in trying to use China grass in 

 the place of flax, but the experiment was given up, owing 

 to the hairy character of the yarns produced. It is, how- 

 ever, quite possible to prepare rhet-a in a way which would 

 enable it to be spun on flax machines; and we find table- 

 cloths and beautiful fabrics of this material equal to any- 

 thing that could be produced from flax. It is also an ad- 

 mirable substitute for wool, especially for mohair and other 

 lustre wools. On the table are illustrations of what it is 

 good for, and many of these specimens show what can be 

 done with it in that respect. From what I hear, there is 

 likely to be a run upon lustre wool shortly, as it appears 

 likely dead surface wools will go out of fashion, and 

 lustres come into vogue again, thus leading to an increased 

 demand for rheea. Then, as to silk. Rheea is ))repared 

 in various ways, so as to leave the gloss upon it, giving 

 it all the appearance of silk, ami it is certainly far superior 

 even for mixing with silk than jute. Many of the ladies 

 present know that the silk dresses which they buy now 

 are very inferior as compared with what they used to be 

 some years ago, the difference arising from thnir being 

 adulterated with jute. No doubt the ladies would like to 

 see the persons who mix jute with silk locked up for life, 

 and most men will agree that the scoundrel who dares 

 to put jute into sailcloth deserves to be hanged, for that 

 might often mean death on a lee shore. 



I do not know that I have mu-h more to say njjon 

 this subject. My story has been rather a long one, but 

 I have done my best to give you some idea of the pre- 

 sent position of the matter, and how it is likely to be 

 altered by the existence of this machine, the result of 

 the genius and intelligence of Mr. H. C. Smith. It is 

 interesting just to think of how he came to invent it. 

 "What first suggested it to his mind was noticing the great 

 aloes, the stems of which grow up to 30 or 4() ft. Mr, 

 Smith observed during the monsoon in the Mauritius that 

 where the inner leaves were dashed against tliese great 

 stems, they were broken up, the result being that the 

 pith got washed away, and the fibres were left hanging. 

 This suggested, to his mind, tlie idea of a machine in 

 which a rush of water woidd play the same part, and he 

 was fortunate enough to find in Messrs. Death and Elwood 

 a firm possessing the largest experience in the manufact- 

 ure of fibre-cleaning machines for a similar object in South 

 America and elsewhere. The result of this combination has 

 been the production of the present simple and highly 

 effective machine. 



AVith regard to the exhibition of the machiue pro\'iously 

 referred to, it will nf>t be possible to show it at work 

 upon fresh rheea, but there is a supply af Agave and 

 other leaves which will show its action upuu them, 



