Februast I, 1884.J THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST, 



575 



Mr. Martin Wood remarked that the large prize offered 

 for the machine for cleaning rheea fibre %vas tlie first special 

 effort made by Lord Mayo towards developing the special 

 industries of India. His own impression was that Mr. 

 Greig's machine scarcely had fair play. The time announc- 

 ed was 1st April, but the trial did not come on until 

 the end of August. He believed Lord NortUbrook, wlio 

 witnessed the experiments, considered the machine a 

 decided success. It turned out something like 150 lb. 

 per day, which came within the condition of costing less 

 that £50 a ton. That, however, was now an old story. 

 He was anxious to see the machine described succeed, be- 

 cause it seemed just what many had been wishing to have 

 introduced for the purpose of developing the fibres of India. 

 Dr. Watsou was, do doubt, enamoured of the rheea plant, 

 but for his own part, there were many reasons which 

 made him take more interest in what he might call the 

 Cinderella fibres — the aloes, the mudar, and others. How- 

 ever impoitant and interesting these results were with 

 regard to the rheea, it was a hundred times more important 

 that these commoner fibres shoul<l be utilised. If this 

 machine could be worked with 1 horse-power, it could per- 

 haps be worked by hand, and if so, it was one of the 

 most iuvaluable inventions India could have, for the great 

 difficulty there was to get motive power. The cultivation of 

 rheea was limited, because he believed it would not grow 

 in the plains, but only at an elevation of some 2,000 feet, or 

 in the hilly districts at any rate; and it would involve the 

 outlay of considerable capital. These common fibres, how- 

 ever, cost nothing, they were within the reach of the mass 

 of the people, and if they could be utilised by the aid of 

 oiu- wonderful mechanical appliances, they would be a most 

 important adjunct to the food crops and coarse agricuitui-e 

 of the country. 



Mr. Kahlert said his firm hatl had a sample of rheea 

 grown in Sumatra, on the plains, near the northern coa,st. 



Mr. W. Haworth said his experimeuts m growing rheea 

 were made on plains near Calcutta, than which you cou!d 

 not find any place much lower. He had found it growing 

 wild on the slopes of the Himalayas, at Darjeeling. 



Dr. Forbes Watson said the best sample he had se. ;i 

 was grown iu Eg\'i)t. 



Mr. Liggins would suggest that a drawing should be 

 published, so that they might see the nature of the plant, 

 and also information given as to how far apart the plants 

 would grow best. AVithin his recollection, the; sugar-cane 

 was planted 3 feet apart, but it was discovered in Barbadoes 

 that they grew much better 5 feet apart, and he believed, 

 that on some of the most fertile lauds they were planted 

 from 7 to 8 feet apart. If a larger production of cane 

 was produced in this simple way, at the same time de- 

 creasing the cost of planting, the same resnlt might be 

 produced in the case of this plant. He should also like to 

 know whether it required a swampy soil, and whether it woiUd 

 stand the heat of the tropics without frequent rains. The 

 esparto grass in the West Indies would not grow except 

 on swampy soil, and possibly this would be the same. 

 Between thirty and forty years ago he was much interested in 

 trying to get perfected in Euglaud similar machines to that 

 now described, but it was found that nothing could be 

 done without an amount of water in connection with the 

 rollers, which rendered it impossible to work at a profit. 

 The aloe, which grew in great profusion in the West Indies, 

 was not utilised because of the ditficuity of separating the 

 gummy matters for the want of a sufficient supply of water. 

 He and his friends found that they could not get English 

 manufacturers to alter their machinery to use a new material. 

 About the same time, he imported a considerable quantity 

 of a very beautiful substance called siik cotton, but no 

 manufacturer in England or France would take the trouble 

 to look at it. So it was, some years ago, with esparto; 

 the difficulty always was, with a new material, to get 

 manufacturers to alter machinery. He was much pleased 

 with the specimens of cordage shown, and could speak 

 from experience as to the importance of re<lucing both 

 the weight and size of ropes used for rigging. 



Mr. G. F. Cross said Dr. Watson bad spoken of the jute 

 industry iu connection with this machine, but he thought 

 it*? application would revolutionise the present trade. He 

 had pointed out, from an examination of the fibre, that 

 the who:e of the jute imported into the country represented 

 de^^Taded fibre, and he had satisfied himself, by chemical 



examination of the nature of a large number of bales of 

 jute, that there was sometimes a considerable developed 

 degradation of fibre in the centre, especially when it was 

 packed with the least dampness, iuvohnng the passage of 

 the constituents of the fibres into soluble matters, and 

 consequently great depreciation in value. He inferred that 

 not only were the portions to be examined degraded, 

 but probably the whole bullv. He was far from wishing 

 to say anything iu depreciation of this new machine, but 

 he should like to ask whether some of the lesser practical 

 qviestions might not be lost sight of in xnew of the great 

 theoretical triumph accomplished. He though these might 

 out-weigh, in the case of the Cinderella fibres which had 

 been referred to, the advantages. In the fijst place, it 

 would be very difficult to organise the jute industry uito 

 any concerted action for the adoption of a machine of this 

 kind, the qualification being in the hands of a large number 

 of small producers, each of whom worked his own fibre. 

 Then, of course, the cost of production had been put 

 from £7 to £10 a ton, and when they remembered that 

 jute was retailed at about £18, it seemed to him the 

 margin left was somewhat narrow. Dr. Watson called the 

 machine a universal fibre cleaner, and it might prove to 

 be so; but chemists still believed that there was a certain 

 future for chemical manipulation iu the case ol fibres which 

 it was impossible to treat mechanically. When you had 

 simple bast, as in the case of rheea jute, the handling of 

 the fibres was easy, but where you had the bast built up 

 into internal stems, such as wood — where you had fibre 

 to deal with like straw, where the bast elements were 

 solidified into cm'iously complex substances — there was a 

 great future for chemistry, and this remarkable machine, 

 would have to run a considerable race until the functions 

 of the two were properly adjusted on a chemical basis. 

 He was interested in certain new processes, which had 

 been worked at a considerable cost for the chemical treat- 

 ment of fibres. AVith regard to rheea and other fibres 

 which had been treated by this machine, he thought they 

 were apt, in the face of new results, to over-estimate a 

 little the value of the fibre. It must be remembered that 

 affinity of rheea for colouring matters was very weak, and, 

 therefore, he thought its substitution for silk was perhaps 

 more than they could expect, or for other things where 

 the property in taking a fast colour was desu-able. In the 

 Favier and Fremy process there was a conjuuction of chemical 

 and mechanical treatment, but this machine of Mr. Smith's 

 did not seem to be wurked in connection with any chemical 

 treatment; very likely under previous chemical manipul- 

 ation of a large number of these complex structures, the 

 isolation of the fibres would be more easily accomplished, 

 and the fibre produced would be of considerably higher 

 order than would be produced by the machine alone. 

 Lastly, he would ask if the inventors had any hopes of 

 being able to apply it to the flax industry, which was a 

 very important one, particularly in Ireland, where such a 

 machine was greatly needed, for he did not think there 

 was any product which came into the market in such 

 varying quality as flax. 



Mr. T. Christy remarked, with regard to the price of 

 rheea fibre coming down, it might not be known to many 

 present that since it had come hito the market, experiments 

 had been made for turning it into a material closely re- 

 sembling leather. Comparing the two, he might say that 

 the value of leather bands was about 5s. a lb., and that 

 of rheea fibre Is. a lb. at the utmost. These bands had 

 been tested, and a 3-iuch rheea fibre band was found to 

 do tlie work of a 9-inch leather band. That being so, 

 there was not much fear of rheea going down. One other 

 important fact, not mentioned by Dr. Watson or by Mr. 

 Cross, was this, that if the fibre were wetted, it was most 

 difficult afterwards to preform many of the chemical 

 operations upon it. Mr. Ekman had had most excellent 

 results in his process by treating the rheea after it had 

 been worked in Mr. Smith's machine. That was a very 

 gi-eat feature in this new process, and might be the means 

 of enabling a dyer to bring up the colour of the fibre, 

 whicli, at present, had been found very difficult. 



Mr. CoUyer said Dr. Forbes Watson had asked him to 

 reply to the various points raised, as he. unfortunately, was 

 not able to hear them. It was very evident that Mr. Martin 

 Wood had but a very partial knowledge of the rheea plant 

 and of itfi mode of cultivation. HIb own impresBiou wav 



