8 EAMIE. 



stalks, or 15 to 20 per cent of the weight of the air-dry stalks. In 

 Taiwan (Formosa), where three or four crops are harvested each 

 year over about 5,000 acres, the average annual yield is about 700 

 pounds per acre. In Hunan and Hupeh, China, the annual yield is 

 400 to 600 pounds of Cliina grass per acre from three crops. 



MARKET. 



Cliina grass, which is ramie fiber cleaned by hand in China, can be 

 delivered in San Francisco or New York at 6 to 10 cents per pound. 

 If it is to be produced in this country it must compete in quality and 

 price with that imported. It is not listed separately in the statistics 

 of imported articles, so there are no exact figures available as to the 

 quantities imported. It is roughly estimated that the importations 

 of China grass now amount to nearly 1,000,000 pounds annually, 

 besides considerable quantities of yarns and some degummed filasse 

 prepared in Europe. No regular market for ramie fiber has been 

 established in this country, and it is not listed with American quota- 

 tions of other fibers. Ramie ribbons and China grass are both 

 quoted in the London fiber market. Hongkong is the principal 

 shipping port for the fiber, but it may be purchased in nearly all the 

 ports of China and also in Taiwan (Formosa). 



USES. 



Ramie is used in this country prmcipally in millinery goods, knit 

 underwear, dress goods, for mixing with silk, and for shoe thread. 

 It is suitable for dress goods, plushes, upholstery materials, portieres, 

 table napery, incandescent gas mantles, and nearly all lines of goods 

 now made from silk or Imen yarns. It is distinctly different, however, 

 from either silk or linen. It is especially suitable for goods in which 

 strength, nonelasticity, absorbent properties, and luster are required. 



DECORTICATING MACHINES. 



The lack of satisfactory mechanical methods for separatmg the 

 fiber from the woody inner portion of the stalk and from the thin 

 outer bark has made it unpossible to produce the fiber wdth profit 

 outside of countries having cheap, skilled, hand labor. Many ma- 

 chines have been devised for decorticatmg ramie and some liave been 

 built, but very few have been actually used m the field. Most of 

 the machines have lacked either efficiency in cleaning the fiber or 

 capacity sufficient to enable them to compete with the work as it is 

 done in Chma. At the present time three different companies in 

 Europe are advertising machines for decorticating ramie fiber from 

 the green stalks. Very promising work was done in trials in the 

 fall of 1911 with a machine built in this country to decorticate ramie 



[Cir. 103] 



