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THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [April i, 1886. 



" I have planted a good acre of ramie in oar gardeu . 

 When I will be no more do not disturb it ; take 

 good care of it. If its utility is not appreciated to- 

 day, the time will surely come when tlio true value 

 of this plant will be universally recognized and you 

 have in these roots the beginning of a fortune." 



WHERE TO I'INn RAMIE PL.^NT.S OR ROOTS. 



Various Louisiana planters have in their fields some 

 thousands of ramie plants which they could aft"ord 

 to divide. For my part, I have a large stock of the 

 species Teuacissima, the best of all, which I hoM at 

 the disjjosal of any planter wishing to plant au acre 

 or more of 5,rKX) roots, payable half cash, half in crude 

 bark from the crop of 1887. 



HOW TO Cl'LTIVATE. 



Planti'-g being over, if the summer season is ac- 

 companied by a prolonged drought it will be necessary, 

 during the hot weather, if the soil where the ramie 

 is planted is not naturally moist, faclliate growth and 

 vegetation by irrigation, which should be more or less 

 frequent according to the permeability of the soil. 

 Irrigation, however, must be stopped fifteen days be- 

 fore gathering, to permit the stalks to fortify and lose 

 their excess of moisture. 



The land should be disposed as to permit easy water- 

 ing. The best disposition consists in placing the plants 

 on small ridges, separated by furrows which serve 

 at the same time the purpose of irrigation and 

 drainage. Like all plants whose leafage is strongly 

 developed, ramie absorbs from the atmosphere a large 

 portion of the elements necessary to its nutrition, 

 consequently it does not exhaust the soil, and will 

 prosper in ordinary ground whilst hemp and flax need 

 a very rich soil, which they speetlily exhaust. It is 

 good at each crop to abandon on the ground the 

 leaves of the ramie plant, which thus return to the 

 soil a part of the elements taken from it. 



It should not be inferred that ramie is indifferent 

 to the action of fertilizers,* Its vegetation is always 

 proportionate to the elements furnished for its sus- 

 tenance, provided always that they possess an assim- 

 ilating nature. Therefore, as is the case with plants 

 of rapid development, liquid fertilizers are the best. 

 These should be used, mitigated with water, in the 

 spring and at every cutting. Farm manure should be 

 employed only as a covering before winter, so as to 

 permit the snow and rain to saturate the soil with 

 its elements. 



Durinj^ the first year the culture ef ramie requires 

 weeding around the young jdants so as to rid them 

 of noxious grasses. When, however, the plant has 

 taken possession of all its allotted space, weeding 

 becomes unnecessary, and the labor is reduced to giving 

 iu the spring one smoke of the plow to clean the 

 draining ditches, and another one in autumn to cover 

 the feet of the plant for the winter. 



HOW TO HARVEST. 



According to the Imperial Treatise on Chinese Agri- 

 culture the ramie stalks .should be cut before the bud- 

 ding season, when their lower portion begins to assume 

 a brown tint. 



The harvesting of stalks should be made with a 

 very sharp scythe, to avoid tearing, which would in- 

 terfere with cicatrization. If th*; stalks are to he used 

 in the green state, they should be made up in bundles 

 of about 200 and carried to tbe machine. If they 

 are to bo used dry, they must be left to dry in the 

 sun as rapidly as possible. This process offers some 

 difliculties, as the stalks contain a great deal of water 

 and are hydrometric by themselves. It will be neces- 

 sary to use natural labor to turn over the stalks on 

 the ground until they are dry It is important not to 

 gather them in until perfectly dessicatcMl, for they 

 would thon rapidly become mildewed, which would 

 also be the case if they were kept in a moist place. 

 When it is wanted to utilize the r.Tmie leaves for the 

 feed of animals or paper-making, they should be strip. 

 ped from the stalks at the time of harvesting. 



* One of the great obstacles to successful cultivation 

 is the exhaustive nature of the croji. — En, 



HOW TO SELL THE CROP AND WH.Vr IS THE PRO- 

 DUCTION PER ACRE. 



It is important to bear in mind that ramie, like 

 cotton, hemp and flax, presents varying qualities, ac- 

 cording to soil, mode of culture and harvesting. 



In (!bina, for weaving the finer tissues a difference 

 is made even between the fibrous strata on the same 

 stalk. The exterior fibre is coarser and stronger than 

 the interior fibre nearest the wood, which is era- 

 ployed in weaving silk goods. 



The first crop is shorter, branches off more than 

 the second and third, and produces inferior filire. 



Treatment in the green state not requiring that 

 the plant should be fully matured produces a finer 

 quality of fibre and allows cutting when the stalks 

 are about five feet high. This gives also an advance 

 of fifteen days on the crop, which in Louisiana would 

 permit making three crops. 



Practice will teach with more exactness what will be 

 best to do, for though the above information is de- 

 rived from positive experience, yet it is an experi- 

 ence made in countries different from your own. 



The average value of the crude ramie bark has 

 been estimated at five cents per pound. At that pries 

 there is a great European demand. In addition to 

 this let me tell you that it is by 100,000 roots that 

 the villages in the south of France are now plant- 

 ing ramie, and since two months the prices of roots 

 have raised 30 per cent. American consumption will, 

 I think, enhance the price of five cents per pound 

 of crude bark, for manufacturers here are at this 

 very moment waiting for a regular and sure produc- 

 tion to rear up their fabrics. 



However this may be, we are ready now to pay 

 five cents cash per pound for the crude bark of ramie, 

 dried and baled, landed in New Orleans, where we 

 establish a branch oflice. 



One acre planted now with 5.000 roots will have 

 14,1100 plants at the fall, and will produce in 1887 at 

 least fifteen stalks per plant, and a total in round 

 numbers of SiVi.OOO stalks, giving one-eighth of an 

 ounce of bark, or a pound by 125 or I'M stalks, or 

 1 ,fi00 pounds an acre per crop, or for two crops 3,200 

 pounds per acre, at five cents a pound, SlOO. Putting 

 down at sfiO the annual expenses, harvesting and pro 

 rata of first cost of the roots, we arrive at the 

 splendid result of SlOO net profit per acre for two 

 crops, and in Louisiana, with its lengthy fall, joined 

 to the treatment in the green state, wliii-li requires 

 less maturity in the plant and therefore less time, 

 three crops are almost a certainty. 



WUAT ASSURANCES ARE THERE IN THE FCTrRE OF 

 RAMIE? 



A certain proportion of the ramie crop will be ap- 

 plied to the fabrication of finer tissues. There will, 

 of course, be a choice of qualities, but the true com- 

 merce of ramie will extend upon condition that the 

 average quality of ramie will be produced at a price 

 which will permit its advantageous use in the manu- 

 facture of tissues of general consumption. The price 

 of five cents a pound for the crude bark corresponds 

 with the good tissues which are now being manufact- 

 ured from first quality of flax or wool. Under these 

 ccnditiouB I would say to every iutelligent American 

 farmer : " Hasten to plant one, two or three acres 

 of ramie, enlarge your production each succeeding 

 year, and, however" large it might grow, there is no 

 possible d.'inger of too much ramie in the United 

 States before twenty years t« come. When that mo- 

 ment arrives American genius will meet the emergency." 



MACHINES. 



The machine or decorticator of our comirany work- 

 ing only on material in the green state, I am natur- 

 ally a partisan of that system. But I lio not tor 

 that r-ea.son condemn the work on the dry material. 

 The future will show who is right I There are five 

 machines at your Expo.sition, three working on the 

 green and two on the dry material. 



