806 EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



The ramie plant is perennial and yields from 8 to 15 tons of gn'een 

 unstripped stalkvS i)er acre. Ramie may be decorticated either when 

 the stalks are green or dry. In the humid climate of Louisiana the 

 liber should be prepared from green stalks. Some machines are adapted 

 to working ramie dry, others to working it green, and a few claim to 

 work the stalks either green or dry. 



In the fall and winter of 1894 a committee tested at the station 3 

 decorticating machines. One of the machines decorticated 1,000 lbs. 

 of freshly cut unstripped stalks in 1 hour 5 J minutes, and the fiber pro- 

 duced when dried weighed 56 lbs. In another test this machine decor- 

 ticated 500 lbs. of green unstripped stalks in 24 minutes, yielding 30J 

 lbs. of dry fiber. 



Another machine decorticated 112 lbs. of dried ramie stalks without 

 leaves in 2 hours 11 minutes, during which time the machine was in 

 actual operation only 52| minutes; the product was 30 lbs. of fiber. 

 In another trial 380 lbs. of green ramie stalks, stripped (equal to 055 

 lbs. of unstripped stalks), were decorticated with saturation in 50 min- 

 utes; the product was 25^ lbs. of dry fiber. In other tests, green 

 unstripped stalks were decorticated at the rate of 825.9 and 1,200 lbs. 

 per hour. 



A smaller machine decorticated dry ramie stalks at the rate of 322 

 lbs., and green unstripped stalks at the rate of 900 lbs. per hour. 



One of the machines delivered the fiber in a somewhat tangled con- 

 dition and left a piece of adherent wood at the end of each fiber. 

 Another machine required too much power. Tlie outlook for obtaining 

 a successful ramie machine is regarded as promising. 



Fertilizer experiments -with salt grass {N'eic Jersey Stas. Rpt. 

 1893, p. 137). — Nitrate of soda alone and in combination with superphos- 

 phates and muriate of potash failed to increase the yield of the salt 

 grass {Juncus geraldi). 



Experiments with wheat, S. M. Tracy {Mississippi Sta. Rpt. 1893, 

 pp. 23-25). — Several varieties of English and French wheat were grown 

 at the station. The English varieties failed; the French varieties. 

 White Naples and Rieti, proved valuable. The average yield for 3 

 years of wheat grown on prairie or creek bottom soil was 21.3 bu. per 

 acre. A crop of wheat and of corn was grown on the same field within 

 12 months, one variety of wheat yielding 24.1 bu. per acre, and the corn 

 yielding 26 bu, per acre. 



The best fertilizer for wheat on a gray loam, somewhat sandy, was a 

 mixture of 400 lbs. of acid phosphate, 250 lbs. of kainit, and 400 lbs. of 

 castor pomace per acre. This mixture increased the yield 131 per 

 cent. 



Wheat, barley, oats, rye, and spelt, C. H. Shinn [California Sta. 

 Rpt. 1893 and 1894, pp. 5.^5-557).— Tabulated data give the time of ripen- 

 ing and of cutting, length of straw and ear, yield of grain and of straw, 

 and brief notes on the character of growth and grain for 64 varieties 



