502 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [Nov. X, 1886. 



a view of their being capable of drying tea. The 

 furnace pipes in Jackson's are very like the latter 

 mentioned, and if they last as long without renewal 

 they will not cost much to keep up. The reason 

 why I confined my remarks to drying machinery is, 

 that we are quite pleased with our rollers and sifters 

 and I do not think they can be much improved upon, 

 lu coucludiug tliese I would recommend all Assam 

 planters who would economise labour and fuel to 

 have a good look at Jackson's Victoria and Venetian 

 dryeis before decidiug to go in for new machinery 

 of a like nature. — O.x " Ouootee." — Indian Planters' 

 (ja:<Aic. 



IN 



THE CULTIVATION OF THE EAMIE 

 FRANCE. 



An article recently published by Mons. M. E. Fremy 

 in the Coiiiptcs-ItCiidus must be anything but pleasant 

 reading for our cousins across the water. A solitary 

 Frenchman in some part of Egypt is said to have acci- 

 dentally dropped a cotton seed in his garden, and thus 

 has been the means of iutroduciug the cotton plant 

 into Egypt ; and now M. Fremy, after devoting a 

 number of years to the investigation of the nature 

 and character of vegetable textile fibres, has come to 

 the conclusion that Chinese ramie can be cultivated 

 in France as a substitute for imported cotton. In 

 view of the importance of J\r. ]'>emy's assertions, it 

 may be as well if we give our readers a few part- 

 iculars of this plant. The ramie of China is grown 

 to the natives under the name of Tchonma ; to botan- 

 ists as the Bohmeria niveau; and more popularly in 

 England as the grass-cloth plant. The genus is of 

 the order of uettleworts, U/ticacecP, and allied to true 

 uettles, Urtica. There are several species found also 

 in Assam, Nepaul, the Sandwich Islands, and Brazil ; 

 and in each country excepting the latter, where it 

 has a medicinal use, it is employed in the manufac- 

 ture of textile fabrics. The Chinese plant reaches a 

 height of about 3ft. or 4ft. Its leaves, growing on 

 long hairy footstalks, are heart shaped, have serrated 

 edges, and are about Gin. long and 4in. broad. They 

 are green on the upper side, and covered on the under 

 side with white down. The Chinese obtain three 

 ci'ops of stems annually. The second is judged to be 

 thf best. The fibre is procured by stripping off the 

 hark in two long pieces, which are carefully' scraped 

 with a knife to get rid of the useless matter. These 

 !ire then divided into fine filaments by steeping them 

 in hot water or holding them over steam. 



In the researches made by M. Fremy into the chem- 

 ical composition of the skeletons of vegetables, his 

 attention has been principally directed to the bodies 

 which weld the fibres together, and which oppose 

 their separation. He has known that the cement of 

 the fibres and cells is chiefly formed of three subs- 

 tances, which he has studied under the names of 

 ■peclns.:, ciitosr. and vcscvlosr, or pectin, cuticle, and 

 vesicle. Knowing that these can be destroyed and 

 the fibres separated from them, he has tried to com- 

 plete his researches by applying himself to the sep- 

 aration of the fibres wliich are found in the principal 

 textile plant.s, such as the ramie, flax, hemp, and 

 jute. The ramie was cultivated in France, for the first 

 time, says 51. Fremy, at the Natural History Museum, 

 by tiie late M. Decaisne, and yields an abund.ince of 

 fibres of an extraordinary tenacity, often possessing 

 the appearance of silk. The ramie thus presents for 

 France, in which utilisation of vegetable textile fabrics 

 is perhaps the most important industry of the comitry 

 a particular intere.st, and may one day become, says, 

 the investigator, our French cotton. 



France, he points out, buys enormous (juantities 

 of vegetable textile fibres from the foreigner, as is 

 shown by the fact that the value of .the cotton 

 imports into France in 1885, was about 7,200,000 fr. 

 The cultivation of the ramie would, M. Fremy is 

 persuaded, relieve the country of the necessity of 

 purcha^iing from the foreigner. It would also mitigate 

 the depression caused in French agriculture, by the 

 relinquishment of mulder cultivation, and might be 

 introdu'ji.d into their coloiiios, to the. assistance of 



their threatened sugar cane industry. M. Fremy 'a 

 method of separating the fibres is to eliminate the 

 objectionable elements by the ordinary reactive action 

 of chemicals, the Chinese, as we have already described, 

 accomplishing this by mechanical means. M. Fremy 

 has laid before the French Academy samples of the 

 ramie fibres thus treated, to prove that the process 

 of elimination is successfully completed, and he 

 expresses the hope that French agriculturists will 

 not hesitate to undertake the cidtivation of the 

 ramie on a large scale, that French spinners will 

 utilise the fibres, and thus afford a fresh example of 

 the services which science is able to render when 

 allied to agriculture and industry, — Indnstric-f, 



EEPORT ON THE HORTICULTURAL GARDENS, 



LUCKNOW, DURING THE YEAR ENDING 



31st MARCH, 1886. 



Financial. — Despite the forebodings of lasst year 

 in regard to the effects of the h ailstorm of January, 

 1865 on the income of the year under review, receipts 

 exceeded those of last year and were R202-9-11 in 

 excess of the budget-estimate of 1110,000. Expenditure 

 amounted to R 14,45 1-5-5, or R454-5-5 in excess of 

 the estimate of R14,000, leaving the net cost at 

 R4,251-ll-6; from this deduct R822-4-0, which repre- 

 sent the cash loss on plants, &c., sent out at reduced 

 prices to public institutions, and we have actual net 

 cost R3,429-8-4. 



Fruit Cidtvre. — The fruit crop was, with a few 

 exceptions, poor, as had been anticipated would be 

 the case. Great attention is being devoted towards 

 forming a good representative collection of the orange 

 family and success in introducing the blood orange 

 of Malta seems at last in view. The yellow Almorah 

 plum has been found to fruit freely, and more plants 

 of it have been laid down. Of grafted carob plants 

 only a few are left, but these are healthy. The 

 Arabian date-palms fruited freely, but, as in former 

 year.s a difficulty was found in preserving the fruit 

 till it had reached full maturity. Date seedlings 

 have been raised in good numbers, including some 

 from a successful cross between the Arabian and 

 the wild date ; a dift'erence in the time of flowering 

 limits free crossing of the two varieties. An ins- 

 tructive table of profit and loss on the various crops 

 shows how pine-apples grown in mango groves may 

 redeem the loss on a poor crop of mangoes by fruiting 

 abundantly. Of new kinds introduced, Barries' fig, 

 tree tomato, mountain papaya, quinces, the edible 

 prickly-pear of Malta, and a few American vines 

 were raised with success. 



7 'cgctalilc and farm culture. — Following past experience, 

 more space was given this year to planting for 

 seed rather than for market sale. Cos-lettuce, for 

 which the gardens have always had a great demand, 

 proved a failure. Hybrid Nankin cotton is iironounced 

 to be of no importance, and its cultivation will be 

 discontinued. Muzaft'aruagar white wheat, grown as 

 an experiment after cotton, proved very successful 

 both as to yield and as to quality of seed. In 

 country vegetables improvement by selection is being 

 preserved with and time must be allowed for eft'ect. 

 Belgian carrot (white) proved, as it has done else- 

 where, to be inferior in yield to the country variety, 

 but to have advantages as a late variety. Of new 

 kinds under trial, salt-bush (Atriple.v nummnlaria) 

 continues to do well, and Saintfoin, from seed received 

 through the Government of India, gave a fair crop. 

 Ji'iUuiida coagvlans, prickly comfrey, hard white 

 wheat from America, and Sliafdar, a forage plant 

 from Persia, have been proved unsuitable for these 

 provinces. On the other hand, good new varieties of 

 mai/.e, tobacco, and early-maturing vegetables of 

 various K'inds were tried with more or less success. 

 Distribution was much the same as to acclimatized 

 seeds as last year, save in regard to silver-skinned 

 onion and cos-lettuce, for which the demand was 

 abnormal. For imported seeds the demand slightly 

 iii( Tonscd. 



