JULV i, 1885.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST, 



37 



RHEA FIBRE : CULTURE AND PREPARATION. 



KHEA CTLTIVATION— rUOPOSED COMPAMY— TTSEg OF EHEA 

 FIBEE— A HINT TO CEYLON— SntPLB PEEPAHATIOX. 



It is now nearly eighteen months since Mr. Edwin 

 Watsou of Johore entered into an agreement with Mr. 

 G. 'W. U, Brogden & Oo. of Gresham House, London, to 

 sell to a Oompany 20,000 acres of land selected by him 

 for the cultivation of rhea in .Johore, and to act as local 

 manager of the property, but up to present time the 

 t^ompauy has not been floated. Mr. Watson has however 

 since his return to Johore about a year ago planted out 

 a considerable area of land with rhea, and has already 

 demonstrated the suitability of the soil and climate tor 

 its culture : not that there could ever have been any 

 doubt on this point, aa the plant is indigenous all over 

 the southern portion of the Malay Peninsula. A determined 

 effort is now being made by the London firm above-named 

 to establish a company to promote the production of 

 the fibre, and to purchase from it the rights to use the 

 Favier-Fremy processes, and in furtherance of this object 

 Mr. Edward Caspar, one of the partners, went down to 

 Manchester a few days ago, and held a meeting at the 

 Town Hall, under the presidency of Mr. James H. Hutton, 

 the Chairman of the Lhamber of Commerce, who is by 

 the way the brother of the late Mr. T. 0. Hutton, 

 formerly of Kandy, and son-in-law of Mr. John Capper. 

 Sir Joseph Lee, and some other prominent Manchester 

 men have lately manifested a keen interest in the question 

 of utilizing rhea, and extending its supply, and Mr. 

 Caspar's purpose was to enlist the sympathy and support 

 of Lancashire mill-owners for his project, which is now 

 called the China Grass Supply Company. His efforts seem 

 to have been very successful, it one may judge from the 

 attention that has been attracted to the subject in the 

 Manchester papers, and the large number of influential 

 men who took part in the proceedings, but whether when 

 it comes to the practical test of subscribing the requisite 

 capital, they will be found equally eager, I cannot of 

 course pretend to say. Mr. Caspar exhibited a great 

 variety of materials made from rhea, extending from fire 

 hose and machinery belting to beautiful velvet goods, 

 towellings, table covers, and other articles; yarns of all 

 counts up to 2C0's (French); and samples of the fibroin 

 every stage of manufacture, and of the chief shades of 

 dye. It was conclusively demonstrated that entire auccess 

 has been gained, and that the material has been proved 

 applicable to a very wide range of goods : indeed, it is 

 claimed for it that it stands at the head of all vegetable 

 fibres. There is in it a hairiness of texture which permits 

 of it being worked up into resemblance of wool; audit 

 has also a gloss and lustre which assimiUtes it to the most 

 delicate of animal fibres, namelv, silk. For rough goods 

 it is particularly valuable. Although it can be sold at 

 half the price of flax, it is six times as strong. Made 

 into fire hose, and tested against ordinary material, it has 

 beeu found that whereas the latter commenced to " weep " 

 at a pressure of 100 lb. the rhea hose would stand a press- 

 ure of 600 lb. As machinery belting, the results of experi- 

 ments by Messrs. D. Kirkaldy & Sons prove its high 

 superiority to leather in respect of tensile strength aud 

 rates of extension: leather broke at 600 lb. mean stress, 

 Ohma grass fabric held out until 1,400 lb had been reached. 

 It works up admirably in furuiture fabrics, taking the 

 place of spun silks, in giving all the silky ajipearanoo 

 with the advantage of greater .strength. 



Mr. Caspar explained to the meeting the nature of 

 rhea cultivation, pointing out that it was both easy and 

 profitable, and announced that large blocks of land had 

 beeu secured by the Company in Johore and Venezuela. 

 A large portion of the land in Johore lay on both sides 

 of a nver navigable to the ports of .Johore and Singapore 

 at all seasons, and there were six crops a year. Tho 

 delay which hod taken place in the popularizing of the 

 fibre arose from tho difficulties aud expense attendant on 

 Its treatment to prepare it for use, but processes had some- 

 what recently been discovered, which removed this diffic- 

 ulty, and now tho fibre could bo delivered chemically 

 pure, ready for splnuiug and dyeing. From the date the 

 plant was cut olf until it was delivered to tho manu- 

 facturer a week need not olapso, aud tho Company, if 



formed, would insure a supply of at least one thousand 

 tons a month. Tho material could bo laid down cheaper 

 than any present one,— flax, cotton or hemp, and it had 

 qualities infinitely superior to any of them. Those who 

 were moving in the matter had secured some thirty 

 square miles of laud, and had acquired very valuable 

 concessions and privileges. What they wanted now was 

 money to enable them to cultivate tho plant, and to 

 tlie Company which it was proposed to form Sir Joseph 

 Lee had promised to subscribe. 



One of the Mauclioster papers in discussing Rhea 

 Culture remarks as follows :— " Even as the nearly-ruined 

 coffee-planters of Coylon found salvation at tho last 

 moment in cinchona and tea cultivation, so, perhaps, may 

 the unfortunate gold-seekers of South India save some- 

 thing by growing rhea grass on their estates. Owing to 

 recent improvements in the machinery for separating the 

 fibre, this industry promises to prove very remunerative. 

 The main difficulty, indeed, is in finding localities jwhere 

 the soil aud climate suit the plant. A suppiy of cheap 

 labour is also necessary, aud as all these requisites exist 

 in the Wynaad and adjacent districts, it requires nothing 

 but capital and enterprise to make a start. According 

 to the calculations of Mr. VV. G. Kemp, each properly- 

 cultivated acre should yield a net profit of £S 3s Id per 

 annum. This includes all working charges from planting 

 until the prepared fibre is placed on board ship. A farm 

 of 1,000 acres would, therefore, return £8,154 3s 4s as 

 interest on the capital sunk in buildings and machinery. 

 The estimates are made on the assumption that each acre 

 would yield 10 cwt. of the fibre per annum, but Mr. 

 Kemp is of opinion that the out-turn might be doubled by 

 careful planting and manipulation. Even, however, as 

 matters stand, it would appear that a handsome profit 

 awaits those who are the first to enter this promising field 

 of industry. The pioneers in cinchona cultivation realized 

 huge profits before the market value of the article was 

 depreciated by augmented production." 



I may add that Mr. Kemp's calculations ore purely 

 theoretical, since he has never planted, or even seen, a 

 aiuglo acre of cultivated rhea in his life, but Mr. Fennings, 

 the Secretary of the Olenrock Co., assures me that under 

 Mr. Minchin's management the industry has been most 

 successfully introduced on the Company's estates in the 

 Wynaad. Starting in May last year with about 2,000 

 plants which he brought with him from Algeria. Mr. 

 Mincliin had in December succeeded in establishing no less 

 than 300,000 healthy plants, and during the monsoon 

 rains this year he hoped to complete the planting up of 

 200 acres. O* course, in order to produce such a result 

 as this everything was sacrificed to propagation ; no plants 

 were allowed to mature ; as soon as possible they were 

 taken up and divided, and iu this way a single plant in 

 five months had produced thirteen strong-growing cuttings. 

 The soil and climate, he said, are evidently most suitable, 

 and before the close of the present year it is expected 

 that a portion of the mature stems will be cut and do- 

 corticated, so as to tost the commercial value of the in- 

 dustry. He reports too, that the natives in tho neighbour- 

 hood of tho estate are manifesting a lively interest in 

 the subject, and eagerly enquiring for seeds and plants 

 to put into their own gardens, so that, it any one of the 

 processes now available for extracting the fibre should 

 prove really satisfactory, it is pretty certain that the rhea 

 industry will soon become a very important one, both to 

 Europeans and natives. 



I have gone at some length into this matter because I 

 am convinced that it i.s ono which must at no distant 

 date receive serious and practical consideration iu Ceylon, 

 where there are thousands, I might almost say millions, 

 of acres of land now lying waste, which might profitably 

 be occupied with this product. It has tlie great advant- 

 age over most others now in vogue, that, where ])lants arc 

 available, the first crop may bo cut within twelve months. 

 During tho last few days, moreover, I have received in- 

 formation which lends much additional importance to tho 

 question of rhea culture, and the accuracy of part of it 

 can easily be tested in Ceylon as there is plenty of wild 

 rhea growing in tho jungles. I am told that thero is 

 really no necessity for tho Favier steaming process in order 

 to decorticate tho stems, for if the thumb nail be inserted 

 in the soft bark and fleshy matter coutiiiued iu tlio fihro 



