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If ramie is to become, as we anticipate, one of the great textiles 

 of the world, it will be grown, like cotton or sugar or rice, in 

 plantations often widely separated, and frequently small in extent, 

 and the great thing is to teach the planter how to prepare the fibre 

 for export so that it may arrive at the mills in a sound condition, 

 and there is nothing that protects the fibre in the course of transit 

 as well as to be embedded in its own gum. 



After degumming, the fibre is then subjected to various manu- 

 facturing processes to turn it into sliver, and from sliver it is spun 

 into yarn. 



It is a strong commentary on the apathy of British manufacturers 

 that, whereas there is only one spinning mill in Great Britain at 

 present at work which treats ramie from the ungummed fibre to the 

 yam, there are several of large extent in Germany, France, and 

 Japan; yet it is in England where the best ramie machinery is 

 made, and these foreign mills come to England for their ramie- 

 spinning machinery. I have reason to believe that this 

 reproach to English industrial enterprise will be removed before 

 long ; and, inasmuch as I and my friends are doing our utmost to 

 stimulate the cultivation of ramie in British dependencies and 

 colonies, we are also aiming at, and are taking practical steps for, 

 making ramie-spinning a British industry. 



In the discussion which followed Mr. Thomas Barraclough said 

 he thoroughly agreed with the bulk of what Mrs. Hart had said. 

 He somewhat differed from Mrs. Hart in her remarks with regard 

 to decorticating by hand labour. It was necessary that the fibre 

 should be degummed as much alike as possible. It was very in- 

 convenient to get a bale of ramie, one-half of which had been 

 properly decorticated by good hand labour, and the other only 

 half decorticated, owning to the fact probably that the work had 

 been done by children, as was the case in China. If the ramie had 

 a good deal of the outer pellicle left on it, it must be treated 

 specially before it was degummed, whereas good decorticated 

 ramie could be degummed straight away without any preliminary 

 treatment. It was very necessary, therefore, that ramie should be 

 decorticated equally. Hand labour was very good when it was 

 good, but it was irregular, and machines must, sooner or later, 

 take the place of hand labour. The Chinese decorticating was the 

 best in the world, due to the fact it was the custom all over 

 China, where ramie was grown, for the payment for decorticating to 

 be the perquisite of the wife and the children with which they 

 bought their clothes. Hence the diligence with which they worked. 

 There were two or three difficulties connected with the brown or 

 black ribbons which were sent to this country. A great mass of 

 stuff was sent over, on which freight had to be paid, which might 

 just as well be left in the fields where ramie was grown. As a 

 consequence the material had to undergo special treatment, and 

 even though he had known it to be bought for £13 a ton, it was 

 dear at the price. Mrs. Hart had said that the plants would last fo 



