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THE TiROPICAL AGRICULTURIST, 



[Feb. I, 1887. 



THE UNIVERSAL FIBRE DECORTICATOR. 



The want of a thoroughly adaptable fibre-cleaning 

 machine has long been felt in India. Handsome re- 

 wards have, from time to time, been offered for the 

 best decorticator, and it was only iu December ISSi, 

 that the Bengal Government awarded the prize of 

 E2,000 to Messrti. Death and EUwood of Leicester, 

 for their Universal Fibre-cleaning Machine, invented 

 by a Mr. H. C. Smith, as being the best out of nine 

 machines tried at Calcutta, under the management of 

 two gentlemen appointed by tho Government of India 

 to carry out the experiments with these machines. 

 When this award was made, it was thought that per- 

 fection had been reached a.s far as it was possible to 

 attain that distinction, and it was confidently expected 

 that Messrs. Death and Elwood's machine would hold 

 the foremost place among decorticators. But the New 

 Orleans World's Exposition has taxed tho inventive 

 genius of the American nation, and there is every 

 reason to believe that a powerful rival 1 1 Death and 

 EUwood's invention has been on exhibition at the 

 New Orleans Exposition. The American papers are 

 full of descriptions of this macliine, which are so flat- 

 tering to its general usefulness and adaptability that 

 we have from time to time noticed it in these pages ; 

 but as it promises to excel all other fibre-cleaning 

 machines, our readers will perhaps wish to know 

 something iu detail about it. 



Mr. Jules Juvenal, who recently lectured at the New 

 Orleans Exposition on ramie, or rhea, describes this 

 machine, which is called the Universal Fibre Decor- 

 ticator, as consisting essentially of three pairs of rolls 

 and a pair of endless aprons. The machines are of 

 two styles. One is designed so as to enable the feeder 

 to deliver the stalks. The other requires a workman 

 at the rear end of the machine to take the cleaned fibre, 

 tho feeder being constantly employed in supplying the 

 machine with material. In the first style the front 

 rolls are smooth : the second are fluted, running about 

 seventeen revolutions per minute. The third pair are 

 armed with scraping blades, rigidly fixed to their 

 periphery and winding spirally around the rolls. These 

 rolls are also hollow, with perforations through their 

 shell, through which water is allowed to flow for the 

 purpose of keeping blades clean from gum ; also to 

 wash the fibre, running 300 revolutions per minute. 

 The material is placed on the table, and is passed 

 half-way or more into the machine, then run back on 

 the table, reversed, and the other end cleaned in the 

 same manner. The second style of machine has scrap- 

 ing rolls in place of the smooth rolls, as iu the first 

 style. These rolls perform the oflice of feeding rolls, 

 and also of cleaning the passing ends of the jnateria! 

 by reversing the pairs of rolls, instead of the material 

 being operated on. 



This gentleman does not pay a high compliment to 

 the experiments conducted at Calcutta under the 

 auspices of the Government of India in 1884, which 

 awarded the prize of R2,C90 to Death and EUwood 

 for their Fibre-cleaning machine; nor does he liold 

 this machine in very hig!i estimation. He says: — 



Tho competition at Calcutta, made under impos- 

 sible conditions, retarded the invention of a practical 

 machine ; for, befides the difficulties presented by dis- 

 tance and the absence of materia! for experiment, the 

 European mechanics were asked to produce machinery 

 which could accomplish the delicate and tedious hand 

 labor of the Chinese workmen, who made a pound of 

 ramie a day by scraping witb a wooden knite a part 

 of the gummy and resinous matters. If experiments 

 bad been made in London instead of Calcutta on green 

 stalks coming from Jersey, the absurdity would have 

 been quickly ascertained of asking of practical ma- 

 chinery more than the mere separation of the fibre, 

 which in the green state is easily accomplished, leaving 

 for chemical agents the task of eliminating the gum- 

 my and resinous matter adhering to the bark. There 

 lies the whole secret. If all inventors of decorticat- 

 ing machines some of whom are very clever, have 

 heretofore failed, it is because they have aimed at 

 filling the conditions imposed for the Calcutta com- 

 petition ; that is, to make a macliine capable of pro- 



ducing directly the China grass, This, nevertheless! 

 cnme near being accomplished last yeir at Calcutta '< 

 but with what paltry results ! The Smith machine, 

 of London, which obtained a prize of 2,000 rupees, 

 or (£1,000) (£200?) produces, with two men and a 

 three-horse power, sixty pounds a day. 



Under such conditions ramie would be twice as 

 high as silk. AVhat is needed is a combination by 

 which production, cleaning and fabrication will give 

 a silky fibre ready for the loom at a cost from twenty 

 to twenty.five cents, about the price of first rate flax. 

 — Indian ArjricHlturist. 



Cinchona Seed fro.m J.wa.— No apology ia needed 

 for calling attention to Mr. du Perron's consign- 

 ment—which is becoming an annual institution — 

 of some of his finest cinchona seed for sale here. 

 Some enterprising Ceylon Planters should after a 

 similar fashion try the Java market, for there can be 

 no dowbt that an interchange of seed is calculated 

 to be beneficial to both countries. We do not sup- 

 pose that discouraging as recent prices for bark may 

 be, the cultivation of cinchona will be given up in 

 Ceylon and there can be no question of the adtantage 

 of using not only foreign seed, but seed from high- 

 class trees such as Mr. du Perron sends for sale by 

 Messrs. Sonierville <fe Co., next Tuesday, Jany. 25. 



A New Withbrer.— Mr. Gibbons has devised a 

 simpler form of his Tea Witherer. He says "these 

 machines are so constructed as to combine strength 

 and economy, and are provided with shelves placed 

 at such an angle as just suffices to move the leaves 

 gently without lifting or bruising them. The leaves 

 being fed in at one end pass out at the other ready 

 for the tea rollers. These revolving Witherers can 

 be packed iu very compact form for shipment, and 

 are easily put together on arrival, and can be sup- 

 plied at the most moderate cost. For example, a 

 small one for use with the baud fan, suitable for 

 the smallest gardens, could be shipped f. o. b. at 

 £25, and from that price upwards they will range 

 from £40 to £200. The larger sizes being calculated 

 to save an enormous amount both in labour, delay, 

 and waste." -Indian Tea Gazette. 



DiPHTHEitiA AND Kerosine. — A Contemporary says : 

 — " The latest discovery in the etiology of disease is 

 rather startling. It is nothing less than that kerosine 

 oil is one of the causes of diptheria. Owing to the pre- 

 valence of the disease iu Connecticut, an enquiry was 

 instituted by the State Board of Health, and the result 

 is that the iusiduous enemy has been detected. The 

 observations were conducted at Meriden, where diphth- 

 eria was rite, and it was found that not a single case 

 occurred in any house that was lighted with gas or 

 caudle. The Board maintains that the discovery is 

 fully established, and if so, there can be no doubt that 

 it is a matter of great importance. .Kerosine oil has 

 come as a boon and a blessing to India, but it has 

 probably never been suspected of promoting illness, 

 What with salicated Pilsener and deleterious kerosine, 

 a new terror is added to Indian life, and the respong- 

 bility rests with the medical faculty." — Pioneer, 



Rot Pkonin-g.— In the Saharunpur Botanic Garden 

 an experiment was tried in root-pruning upon young 

 and over -vigorous Peach trees. A plantation of these 

 was formed three years ago in a vary rich piece of 

 ground formerly used for vegetable cultivation. The 

 trees were of astonishing size for their age, but their 

 vigour all went to stimulate the production of vy-ood 

 rather than fruit : thus " they were fit subjects for 

 the experiment. A trench 2 feet v/ide, 2 feet deep, 

 and 3 feet frona the trunk of the trees, was dug around 

 thorn in December, and every root met with was cut 

 by the spade. The soil was thrown back liberally 

 mixed with manure, and frequent waterings were 

 given for sometime afterwards ; at the same time the 

 branches were thinned out and shortened where 

 necessary for symmetry, but not in any way severely 

 pruned, as native gardener-s are in the habit of doing. 

 The treatment giveu has been (juite successful, as 

 every branch and twig is now kdou with fruit, 

 — Gardeners' Chronicle. 



