948 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[June i, 1883. 



med from light tweed up to heavy cretonne and 

 damask, have excited the interest of scores of visitors 

 who have seen them on our table during the past 

 few months. Our correspondent's thought was that 

 China grass might jjrove a useful "new product" 

 for Ceylon, and perhaps grow freely aud profitably 

 on abandoned plantations. " It is such an exceed- 

 ingly simple cultivation (in North Italy) and from 

 the price, the machinery is so easily within the 

 reach of small capitalists." It seems that the 

 c ipitalist- who has given the start to a new industry 

 in North Italy is M. d'Humieres, a Frenchman, who 

 after residing in Java for some years, where he owns 

 estates aud where of course the Rheea (China grass) 

 grows freely, retired from the tropics and bought 

 ilie Sole use iu Italy of French patent machinery 

 for the manufacture of Rheea fibre. M. d'Humieres 

 hopes to make money by growing and buying the 

 grass from the Italian cultivators whom he supplies 

 gratis w.tu plants under aa .igreenifnt, the substance 

 01 winch IS mentioned in the following e.xtract for 

 >vhich we are indebted to Mr. Kay-Shuttleworth : — 

 Urtica (CIrtica tenacissima*) — (Enrj., China grass ; 

 French, Ramie.) 



{Translaliu.i of article in the "Corriere di San liemo" of 

 SeptemUr 10th, 1SS3. ) 

 We would commend to the attention of .agriculturists 

 a fact which may be of considerable and beneficial 

 importance to Italy and especially to the Riviera 

 [coast liei ween Mai-sedles and Genoa]. M. d'Humieres 

 luis iiiiporied into this district the cultivation of a new 

 plant, iwhich flourishes in our climato and yields 

 abundant aud excellent crops. 



The plant, of which M. d'Humieres owns large 

 plantations m .Java, and which he has uudertalien to 

 cultivate here at San Remo aud in other places in- 

 Ligaria, is a Uxlih -plant, Urtica tenacissima, indi- 

 genous in India aud China. It grows wild in Java. 

 It is easily acclimatized in temperate latitude 

 and grows in anij soil, but flourishes best in 

 light, sandy and alluvial soils. Its cultivation is easy 

 aud aimple and it yields four crops in the year.t 



Its form is that of a ehrub with stalks from li to 

 2 meters in height. The stalks are as thick as one's 

 little finger at tlieroot, straight and smooth. The textile 

 fibre is covered with a thin bark; when this has 

 been carefully removed, there is a mass of long threads, 

 silky and very strong, admirably adapted to all tlie 

 rccjuirtments of manufacture. When bleached these 

 threads are shiny like silk. In the East this fibre is 

 called vegc able silk. 



When comiied and treated iu the same manner as 

 Australian wool it can be spun very fine and can be 

 mixed with cotton wool or silk and dyed any colour 

 or pattern. 



Eastern nations have used it for centuries in their 

 peculiar silky stutfs; iu their cashmires and nankeens, 

 luey introduce a certain proportion of these vegetable 

 threads. These stuffs owe their consistency and soft- 

 ness, the secret of which Euroijean manufacturers have 

 \ailily sought to discover, to the admixture of China 

 grass in their composition. 



But this is not; its only use. Its principal qiuality 

 is tpnacity (hence its name, tenacissima). In the Sunda 

 Islands, irs original habitat, cords, fishing nets aud 

 very solid sails are made of it, and it is particularly 

 well adapted to these uses, being w.atertight. The 

 liffht strong fishing nets which come to Europe from 

 China are made of this fibre. 

 China grass is beginning to be used in Europe for 



* The tetter known botanical name for the llheea is 

 Bohmcna nivea. — Ed. 

 t This appUes ouly to the most favom'able pkices ; in 

 her places it j-ields only 2 or 3 crops. 



several industries. Every part of it may be utilized 

 — the remains of the stalk, after the fibre has been 

 extracted, cont.ain tannin — the leaves are fibrous like 

 the stalks and useful for paper-making, besides being 

 excellent food for eittle. 



The Uriica tenacissima is a perennial plant, like 

 tlie bramble ; it springs up again from the roots. 



The useful qualities of this plant are so highly 

 esteemed by the Dutch (Government that it has ap- 

 pointed a commission to study the advant.ages and 

 drawbacks attending its cultivation. In 1870 the 

 Minister of Commerce and Agriculture in France ap- 

 pointed a similar commission. The English (loverument 

 [of India], convinced of the important part th.it this plant 

 will some day play in industry and commerce, has 

 offered n prize of £.5,000 for the best system of ex- 

 tracting its fibre. Much more might be said about 

 this_ plant, but the above will suffice to prove that 

 its cultivation in Italy will be of great service 

 to our national agriculture and industry, aud especi- 

 ally at the present day, when England, France and 

 Germany have established manufactories in which 

 they use it, and draw their supplies from China alone 

 in sufficient quantity for their requirements. We 

 propose to return to this subject on a future occasion, 

 and only wish to call attention in this article to the 

 excellent results which M. d'Humieres has obtained 

 in our soil and in that of other pl.aces in the Riviera. 



From the experiments we have witnessed, it results 

 that the climate of Liguria is preeminently favourable 

 to the cultivation of this article, which yields four 

 crops a year here, while in Egypt aud Algiers it 

 only yields three and only two in France, and it 

 must be observed that it is a much licher crop than 

 Hax or hemp. In about a fortnight 200,000 plants 

 will be cut that were planted in June in a garden 

 of San Martino. Signer Calsiuo ha^ started another 

 small plantation which is prospering very well in the 

 locality called Cadorso. 



At Loano, where M. d'Humieres has taken 300,000 

 square metres of land on a long lease, he has lately 

 planted more than a million young plants, of vvliich 

 a large [lart is put at the disposal of agriculturists 

 who are inclined to try this new crop. On this point 

 we are moreover authorized to state that M. 

 d'Humieres will spare nottiing to encourage aud 

 help them in this new enterprise. He will instruct 

 them with his counsels, give them moral and material 

 help, put at their disposal the necessary quantity of 

 plants, contracting to buy all their crops jit a price 

 which will oft'er them large profits. Sole possessor 

 of a machine newly invented for peeling and bleaching 

 the fibre, M. d'Humieres is iu the most favourable 

 position for giving this new agricultural industry an 

 impulse such as may work a beneficial revolution in 

 this district. 

 Notes on above, after a conversation with M. d' Hnmidres, 



The Urtica, an indigenous variety, is used by the 

 Sinhalese for upts, audi believe grows from a low dev- 

 iation to 5,000 feet in Ceylon. The "China grass" is ex- 

 ceedinglyeasily cultivated, and is growing fi-eelyat San 

 Remoiu the stillest of clays. It grows from root cuttings. 

 •1 lb, of dry stems give I lb. of fibre. The fibre sells 

 for about RI.S7 per lb. or £6 per kilo. In the cotton 

 districts of America and Egypt it is being substit- 

 uted for cotton. 



The machinery is a French patent, and a machine 

 capable of turning out 225 lb. of clean fibre per 

 diem costs about /2,000 or Rl.OHO, weighs 250 lb. 

 and measures about 4 square metres. M. d'Humieres 

 showed ine some filire in the rough and bleached, 

 also various fabrics, sail cloth, calico, a kind of serge, 

 and mixed fabrics, t sides apiece of cord made of it. 

 The plant is a bu-ih throwing up 40 to 80 shoots 

 about 5 feet high, which are cut periodically. The 

 cultivation appears to be thoroughly suitable as a substit 



