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THE tROPlCAL AGRfCULTORISt*. [Apirl i, 1886. 



Among the countries where it woukl bo well to experi- 

 ment with it are 'iuatemala, Mexico, the East and 

 West Indies, iDiiia, .Southern Ohiua, portions of Africa, 

 and possibly of Italy. It is doubtful if it would grow 

 iu any portion of the United .States. Kequiring an 

 average temperature of at least 7U', the only districts 

 at all suited would be Florida and Southern Texas ; 

 and it is highly probable that proximity to the sea-coast 

 at so low an altitude would prove fatal. Kor would 

 irrigation prove adequate iu those countries possessing 

 a long dry season. The plants must not only have 

 an abundant supply of water at the roots; they 

 must bu,bathed in a humid atmosphere for the greater 

 portion of the year. But from what I have rf^d of 

 some of the countriei above named, I am confident 

 that the plant would there find a congenial home. 

 Jamaica offers especially hopeful conditions, — Fhafm- 

 aceutical Journal. 



ON BAMIE (OR CHINA GEASS). 



A LKCTCnE k1 TULANE H.\LL. 



i'kii'fi of Mr. Jules Juvenal ahont Ramie, its Value 

 tis a Crop, its I'ses in the Industries, and its I'lace 

 in Coutincrce and Jt/riculture. 



At Tulaue Hall, on Saturday night last, there was 

 a Large gathering of those interested in the cultivation 

 of ramie and other fibrous plants. Judge Wm. M. 

 Burwell presided. 



Mr. Jules Juvenal, the lecturer of the evening, thus 

 addressed his listeners: — 



INDUSTRY OF TH.XTILES. 



The industry of textiles is the foremost of all indus- 

 tries. It is that which all over the world ^ives 

 employment to the greatest number of labourers, 

 brokers, merchants and manufacturers. The consump- 

 tion of its products is diurnal and mthout limit. The 

 world has ever been looking for new textiles, but 

 particularly so since the past fifty .years, which have 

 Drought about a general increase of population and 

 modern improvements in the fabrication tissue. The 

 attention of the mauufacturing world has during the 

 last few years principally been called to the ramie, 

 or China grass. 



KAMIE. 



W'hat is ramie? 



It was formerly placed by botanists in the class of 

 urtica, or ortia, but it is now called boehmeria, or 

 spearless nettle. 



I will call it by no scientific name. I will simply 

 name it the richest of all plants, for it possesses 

 wealth of growth, wealth of development and wealth 

 of fibre. 



In ordinary light grouud, with a little watering 

 now and then, no plaut will grow ns rapiiily, no 

 root will multiply (juicker and produce more stalks, 

 no vegetable fibre is handsomer, richer or more 

 silky than ramie. 



Notwithstanding all these elements of success the 

 Chinese alone have for a thousand years past 

 extensively cultivated the ramie plants. How comes 

 the civilized world to be thus backward in introduc- 

 ing a plant of such excellent return and known in 

 Europe siace the beginning of the present century? 

 For my lecture to-day I will endeavour to irform 

 yon concerning : 



1. The causes which have delayed the cultivation 

 of ramie in Europe and America. 



J, The best methods for its cultivation and production. 



o, American machinery applicable thereto, and a 

 description of the machines at your Exposition. 



4. The chemical treatmeut of ramie and of all textile 

 plants. 



The chemical treatment is thi^ coniphunent of all 

 decorticating machinery, for it takes away by dissolu- 

 tion all gummy and resiuous matters adherent to the 

 fibre, which no machiiuTy can completely eradicate. 

 i will tell you how this can be accomplished cheuiie- 

 ally, not only with no injury to the fibre, but with 

 the result on the contrary of adding to its silky 

 (jualities. This perfected chemical process is the pro- 

 perty of our firm, the KamieFibre Slaaufacturiog 



Company, of New York, of which I have the honor 

 of being director. It is by applying this di,sintegrat- 

 ing process to the Kimie tibre, which iitf.irs the most 

 resistance of all, and witnessing its exixllent result.! 

 that, pushiug forward our researches and experiments, 

 we have succeeded in applying to all textile pl.iuts 

 the same process at modified degrees, according to 

 the resisting force of their various fibres. Many of 

 these grow in abunclaiice under your own latitudes, 

 the i)ita and silk grass of Honduras (remarkably fine 

 fibre), the common bagasse of your sugar cane, the 

 typha or cjmmon cattail, which grows abundantly in 

 New York, New Jersey and Sandy Hook, the bow- 

 string hemp^or Florida lily, the yucca of the gulf coasts, 

 the banana, the plantain, the ixle, the bear grass, 

 the Spanish dagger, the licheguUa, the Mexican maguey, 

 etc. With the exception of the cattail or typha, 

 which may be monopolized by New York, all the 

 plants which I have named can be imported in leaves — 

 that is to say, in the crude state, free of duty to 

 New Orleans, which is naturally destined to become 

 fir.st their natural depot, and then their place of 

 transformation into textile fibres by the establishment 

 of factories along your lake coast. By this means 

 New Orleans would become the chief market of the 

 world for textiles, and it will have been one of the 

 results of your Exposition. I will show you later on 

 how this is to be effected. But let us for the present 

 go back to ramie. 



CAUSES OF THE DKL.\Y TO THE INTllODUtTIO.N' OF KiMIE 

 IN ETJROPt; AND AJIEEICA. 



The first shipment of ramie from India to England 

 was a lot of three bales, shipped in 1810. Experi- 

 ments then showed that a ramie rope could suppoi-t 

 a weight of 252 pounds, while a Russian hemp rope 

 of the same size would break on the weight of over 

 eighty-four pounds. 



The ramie question remained at a staml-still during 

 the time of the wars of the empire and the political 

 questions which disturbed Europe during the first half 

 of this century. 



It is only in 18U2 and during your great war, in 

 which the bravery, gallantry and death-daring qualities 

 of the Southern people attracted the admiration of 

 Europe, that the subject of ramie industry was re- 

 sumed. Experiments were made in London and in 

 Koiien to mix cotton with rainie. Messrs. (Jardier 

 & Co., of Konen, successfully wove a lot of Egyptian 

 and Indian cotton, mixed half and half with cut t^hina 

 grass. The warps thus obtained proved much superior 

 to those woven out of pure cotton, hut the difficul- 

 ties presented by the irregularity of the Chinese marki't, 

 which failed to supply a sufhcieut quantity of China 

 grass, and the necessity of special looms, caused the 

 abandonment of the fabricators of that special tissue, 

 and cotton having resumed its normal prices was 

 takeji back as the sole agent of fabrication. 



In 1800 the English government of India, believing 

 in tile future of ramie, and with the intention of 

 introducing it into the public domain, instituted a 

 prize of £.5,0tX) for the best machine for decorticat- 

 ing in the green state. 



Innumerable pamphlets and lectures on ramie men- 

 tion this circumstance as being the cause of the pro- 

 gress made by that textile. I am of an entirely 

 difTerent opinion. I think that the .ilhirements of that 

 prize of £i.OOO. though made with the best intentions, 

 but to which were attached impr.acllabic conditions, 

 heliied greatly to retard, by the rejection of the 

 machines presented, the development of ramie culture. 

 European mt^chanics wore asked in l'iun,.pe to make 

 machinery for u.«e in India, to work a product scucely 

 to be found in Hurope even for purposes of study, 

 experiment, and ron5e<iuently appropriate modifications 

 of mechanical aiipliauces. 



The English Covernineut wouM have done better 

 in applying to the culture of ramie in Europe the 

 amount of the premiums ottered for the Calcutta 

 machines. 



A few acres of ramie in the Island of Jersey, where 

 a retired French Colonel cultivated it with success, 



