JUVL I, 1885.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



71 



Berthet, costs 5,000 frs , and is sufficient for 10 hectares 

 or 20 acres. One machine will clean 1,200 kilogs. dry 

 stalks per day, which yield from 2:! to 25 per cent., or 

 270 kilogs. clean stalks. According to this, a yearly crop 

 of 180,000 kilogs. ramie will yield 54,000 kilogs. dry 

 stalks per hectare. The bleacliing and preparing processes 

 produce 80 per cent, of clean white fibres, free from gum 

 or 9,000 kilogs. of a silk-like fibre. After these processes 

 the fibre is combed by which process SO per cent., of 

 7,G80 kilogs. silk floss and 1,!120 kilogs. noils are obtained. 

 These products command a price of 4 frs. and li frs. per 

 kilog. respectively. 



The yield is as follows: — 



Francs. 



7,G80 kilogs. floss, at 4 frs 30,720 



1,920 " noils, at IJ frs 2,880 



Total frs... 33,G00=£1,344 



The expenses will amount to 14,000 frs., leaving a 

 balance of 196,000 frs., (£784). 



The loss and waste in spinning the yarn amounts to 7 

 per cent. Thus from 7,080 kilogs. floss, 7,000 kilogs. 

 yarn can be obtained in Nos. 50, 60, aud SO at a selling 

 price of 8, 9, aud 12 francs respectively. According to 

 the size of yarn spun, a clear profit of from 56,000 to 

 84,000 frs. can be made, after all the wages for labor 

 for cutlivation, decorticating, bleaching, combing, and 

 spinning have been paid. A plant of 5,000 spindles will 

 produce BOO kilogs. yarn per day, or 150,000 kilogs. per 

 year of 300 days. The consumption would be 251,000 

 kilogs. bleached, fibre, eipial to 1,100,000 kilogs. decortic- 

 ated stalks, and 3,000,000 kilogs, green ramie. Such a 

 production would require a farm of 20 hectares, or 40 

 acres, at three crops per year, with four decorticating 

 machines. 



The cost of a plant of ,i,000 spindles, including build- 

 ings aud other machinery, would amount to 700,000 frs 

 (£28,000); further, a cash capital of MUO,000 frs. (£12,000) 

 fen- buying, &c., would be required, or a total of 1,000,000 

 frs. The following is an estimate of expenses ; — 



Francs. 

 Wages, at 400 frs. per day, 300 days ... 120,000 



Coal, Engine, &c. 30,000 



Management and office expenses ... 85,00!j 



Total 



235,000 



Raw material — 3,000,000 kilogs. green 

 stalks at 8 frs. per 100 kilogs. ... 288,000 



Total per year ... 523,000 



rroduction— 150,000 kilos, yarn. Nos. 30 



to40, 7frs 1,050,000 



5ii,00u kilogs noils at 1.50 frs. ... 75,000 



Deduct exjienses and raw material ... 523,000 



Leaving a profit of ... 002,000 or £24,080 



The above calculations will amply demonstrate the im- 

 portance of so remunerative a cultivation of this plant. 



SriK'NMiNli AND MaNUFACTURIKO OK KaMIE CLOTH. 



Ami-rican hosiery manufactures are using ramie yarns 

 for imitating hosiery which was imported as a silk mixt- 

 ure. In Europe ramie is' employed for making saddles, 

 aud shoemakers' twist for fancy sewing silks, being lustr- 

 ous like silk and having twice the streugth of the 

 best silk or linen thread. Fine ramie yarns are used in 

 silk maDufacturing as filling; the noils are bought by 

 woollen manufacturers for so-called silk-mixed goods.— 

 Of late fine guipure laces and lace curtains were manu- 

 factured by Seidel and Eichter, at Zittan ; the same 

 yarns and articles are also made in France by a large 

 company who bought the patents for France from F. E. 

 Seidel and Co. This company is also notable for its 

 enormous demand for yarn. The latest product from 

 ramie is sealskin plush, which is equal to silk-seal plush, 

 and is sold in large New York dry goods stores at froni 

 S12 to §18 per yard, being the niost perfect imitation 

 of seal.— -A.t the Industri.al Exhibition at Kouen, in 1884, the 



ramie industry was represented by a new decorticating 

 machme of the system Berthet, and a collection of 

 samples of ramie in the various degrees of the process, 

 of manufacturing, and its application, as decorticated 

 bleached, combed, spuu, dyed, and woven ; these samples 

 have been sent partly from Algeria, by M. Ferray d'Es- 

 sonnes, by M\ "Wallon, finisher, and by Oaron and Miray 

 dyers. In the south of France and in Algeria four crops 

 can be obtained per year. For this decorticating machine 

 which works other fibres as well as ramie, a gold medal 

 has been awarded to M. Barchet, and the results ob- 

 tained by it fully correspond with figures above mentioned. 

 M. B:irchet, who is director of spinning and weaving,' 

 has been in Louisiana to organize a cotton spinning and 

 weaving mill. While sojourning there and in Mexico he 

 concened the idea of his decorticating machine, which 

 has given such satisfactory results.— English manufact- 

 urers are using ramie for making alpacas, by mixing 

 wool and ramie, which gives a superior article to cotton 

 and wool.— Introducing the ramie culture in the United 

 States is principally due to the efforts of the J)rv Goods 

 Bulletin., which for years acted as the pioneer of this 

 industry, by publishing leading articles on the merits .and 

 advantages of this culture. It has received samples of 

 fibres, yarns, and fabrics from its foreign correspondents, 

 and has called the attention of its readers to the mix- 

 ture of silk goods with ramie. Beautiful laces and lace 

 curtains are beiu made from ramie, sam])les of which 

 are open for inspection. Of late the majority of the 

 American aud foreign textile papers h.ave taken up the 

 subject of ramie culture. There was no profit made yet 

 in this country by planting ramie, as most of the 

 culturists merely have grown it for a pastime or for 

 expcTiinentiiig, and no proper machine for dcn^orticatin" 

 th(^ fibre built.— Mr. D.avid ,S. Ogden. founder of the Hyde 

 I'ark at Chicago and general agent of Illinois Kailroad 

 Jjand Office, a gentleman full of life and enterprize, started 

 with the writer of this for the United States of Columbia, 

 to explore the pita ramie and other fibrous plant. After 

 a difficult travel of eight months, mostly on mules, we re- 

 turned, hving achieved splendid results, and then we 

 sailed for Europe, to find the most appropriate machinery 

 for decoticating and spinning ramie. We travelled through 

 England. Scotland, Ireland, France, and Germany for eight 

 months, we visited machine builders and yarn sjiinners, 

 and had the intention to go to work on a large scale. Mr'. 

 Ogden, previous to going to Europe, secured a contract 

 with Mexican .and New York capitalists, with power of 

 attorney authorizing him to use his own judgment in se- 

 lecting and buying nmchinery, we to furni.sh our oxi)erience 

 and the bankers the capital for this enterprize,— After hav- 

 ing returned to this country. Mr. Ogden died three weeks 

 afterward, which unfortunate event left the matter in 

 the same state as two years ago. Later the writer made 

 the acquaintance of Mr. Jagerhuber, editor of the JJiy 

 Goods Jitdletin, who had devoted many years' study to 

 the vegetable fibres.— A large collection of samples of 

 yarns and fabrics are to be found at the ofiice of the 

 T>i>/ Goods Bnthlin, which consists of specimens of ramie, 

 in all the degrees of the process of manufacturing, and 

 serve to demonstrate the importance of the cultivation 

 of the ramie plant, its preparation for the use of yarn 

 and textile manufacturers in the United States.— The 

 time is near at hand when every manufacturer of textile 

 fabrics must calculate with ramie, if he wants to keep 

 alive.— Thus far the practical results achieved are a com- 

 plete trhmpli, and, in my opinion, the American peojile, 

 from the farmer and mechanic up to the merchant aud 

 manufacturer, will soou have occasion to express their 

 gratitude to the pioneers of this great industry, but 

 above all to the unselfish and persistent labour o"f the 

 aditor of this paper, I\Ir. Jagerhuber, who has hc4i)ed 

 us more than all European agitators.— A', «■ im-k JJn/ 

 Goods Bulletin. 



THAT HUSBAND OF MINE 



Is three times the man he was before he began using 

 Wells' Health Renewer." Druggists. AY. E. Smith & Co . 

 JIadras, Sole Agents. 



