February 2, 1885.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



617 



ALOE, HEMP AND COTTON FIBRES. 



The Secretary of the Planters' Association has sent 

 us some papers, received from the Director of Agri- 

 culture, Madras, on aloe and sunn hemp fibres and 

 Nankin cotton. The latter, like cotton of all de- 

 scriptions, seems outside the range of Ceylou enter- 

 prize, labour here being so expensive as compared 

 with Southern India, while even where soil may be 

 suitable the seasons are adverse— the boles being in- 

 jured by our heavy monsoon rains. Sir Herbert 

 Maepherson gives a high opinion of Nankin cotton 

 and its bearing capacity, but we have recently seen 

 some very different opinions, the result of practical 

 experiments. Nankin cotton, with other kinds, was 

 tried at Jaffna over forty years ago, and. as at pre- 

 sent advised, we cannot recommend a repetition of 

 the experiment. As for the aloe fibre and that of 

 the sunn hemp, it is the old story of imperfect 

 samples and English prices below the cost of pro- 

 duction. In connection with some disappointing ex- 

 perience in Ceylon, our readers can judge for them- 

 selves as to the encouragement afforded by the fol- 

 lowing quotation. Messrs. Arbuthnot & Co. of Madras 

 reported : — 



Aloe. — Part very rough and badly prepared, but all 

 through the Fibre is useful. Value £14 or £15 per ton. 



Sunn Hemp. — Very good, soft fibre and capital colour, the 

 sample seems to have been dressed too much as it is 

 rather towy. Value about £18 per ton. 



The market for all these outside Hemps is very dull at 

 present but we should certainly recommend shipment of 

 such as tbe above sample of Sunn Hemp. 

 On which the Director of Agriculture remarks : — 



The fibres— aloe {Agave" Americana), and sunn hemp 

 {crotolaria juncea) were grown and prepared in the Cud- 

 dahpah District. From the Collector's letter it appears 

 that the cost in Ouddapah of preparing these fibres was 

 4 rupees a mauud for sunn and rupees 2-S-O a maund 

 for aloe fibre. At rupees 12=£1 therefore a ton of . sunn 

 would cost locally rupees 3iG and a ton of aloe fibre 

 rupees 2*24. As the value of suun in London is only £1S 

 =rupees 216 and of aloe fibre only from £14 to £15=rupees 

 168 to rupees 180 a ton, a trade in them is impossible 

 unless the cost of production can be materially reduced. 

 If local cost with reference to London prices is so 

 high in Southern India, we fear the case would 

 be worse in Ceylon. But we should be glad if trials 

 with Death & Ellwood's machines gave results calc- 

 ulated to induce us to modify our adverse opinion. 

 The desiderata seem to be abundance of raw mat- 

 erial close to the machine and a plentiful supply 

 of water to be used with the latter when at work. 

 The first desideratum is, of course, abundance of 

 raw material, and the first question the cost at 

 which it can be grown. JVy-and-bye we shall know 

 the results of the South Wynaad experiments with 

 the growth of rhea. 



FIBRE-EXTRACTING MACHINES. 



We publish the official award in favour of the 

 performances of Death & Ellwood's machine at the 

 Calcutta Exhibition. But approval is considerably 

 qualified, and we have not yet seen a record of suc- 

 cessful and profitable work in a practical and com- 

 mercial sense. On the contrary, we find it reported 

 that the ten machines ordered for South Wynaad, in 

 connection with rhea culture, have, as yet, failed to 

 come anything up to promise in quantity finished 

 within a given time. All our wishes are in favour 

 of satisfactory and profitable results, but we are 

 bound to say that we have as yet no proof of such 

 78 



results, in an account of rhea cultivation on Glen- 

 rock estate, Wynaad, we find that the ground in 

 which the fibre plant is grown must be dug and 

 pulverized, terraced and irrigated. And then comes 

 the practical test as to profit. We quote as follows 

 from the South Indian Planters' Jit view -. — 



Twenty tons of green stems will dry down to about four 

 or rive tons and these will yield from 20 to 28 per cent, 

 of clean fibre. The green stems recently treated by the 

 Death and Ellwood Machine on the Glenrock Estate, pro- 

 duced little more than three per cent, of clean fibre, 

 though the percentage elsewhere quoted is as high as from 

 five to six. This would seem to imply that the machine 

 is not working satisfactorily and that much waste of fibre 

 is taking place. The waste, however, (a dried sample of 

 which is on view at our office) is useful, as a paper material 

 and is readily bought up to impart strength and cohesion 

 to inferior materials employed for the same purpose. The 

 machine has also proved inefficient in outturn of work, 

 being unable to operate on more than 1\ ton of green stems 

 in a day of 10 hours instead of the 5 or 6 tons promised 

 by the manufacturers. One of these appliances cannot be 

 expected, so pooris the experience already gained of their use, 

 to turn out more than 100 pounds clean fibre in a day ; 

 a result which places it little in advance of tedious manual 

 processes employed for the extraction of the fibre in China. 

 If the Indian ryot is induced to take up the cultivation 

 of Rhea, it is certain machinery will not be employed by 

 him ; he will prefer to dry the stems and sell them to 

 an itinerating or Central Company, an idea which appears 

 to have occurred to the Lini Soie Company, who pro- 

 pose to employ an agent to go round, and after purchase, 

 treat the stems on the spot where produced, by the Favier 

 steaming process. Thir. will necessitate the establishment 

 of a Central Factory with portable plant. Nothing short 

 of some such organization will encourage the cultivation 

 of fibre plants among the conservative Indian Ryots. 

 But, if the machinery employed at the central 

 factory is not capable of doing profitable work, how 

 can success crown the enterprize ? It is possible, 

 that, with all the directions given, the machines on 

 Glenrock are not properly worked ; hut it is un, 

 fortunate that nowhere have the machines suceeeded- 

 that we are aware of, unless the inventor or some 

 person from his establishment has come tn the rescue. 

 We hope soon to receive details of the success of 

 practical experiments, and when these reach us they 

 will be communicated to our readers. 



FrBKE-BxTBAOTINQ MachinK. 

 The following is a portion of the report of Messrs. ,T. AV. 

 Hanlo, and L. Liotard, on the competition of machines in 

 the extraction of Fibres, held in Calcutta in September 

 last: — 



Messrs. Death § EUwood'i machine did not work on the 

 days specified above, as Mr. Death, who was coming out to 

 work it himself, was unavoidably detained on the way by 

 quarantine regulations. As the dates specified were not a 

 condition of the tests or of the award of price we arranged 

 to have a test of this machine during the following week. 

 The plants mentioned in the above table were supplied on 

 the 28th October, and the fibres were worked out by this 

 machine without a bitch of any kind. Indeed, the working 

 parts are of so simple a character, of such s lund material, 

 and correct adjustment, that they leave nothing to be desired. 

 The jet of water plays a most important part in fchi 

 traction of fibres; for the stems, after having boon bruised 

 by the beaters against the edge of the feed-table r < i 

 a very thorough treatment by the beaters on the broad jet 

 of water, and when pulled out they are found to have been 

 freed of all extraneous matters. leaving clean white fibre 

 as the result. The machine is. moreover, as has been proved 

 by the test, capable of treating all fibre-bearing plants, 

 whether exogenous or endogenous with the same facility. A 

 semi-port.ible engine of 2J nominal horse-power supplied 

 the motion to the double machine used at tbe trials. At 

 a rough estimate 1*75 indicated H. P. was expended in driv- 

 ing the double machine at 400 revolutions per minute while 

 at work. As only one half of the machine was used for 

 the purposes of the trials, the other half ran idle. The 



