610 



FACTS FROM VARIODS SOURCES. 



A NEW RAMIE-MACHINE. — At the late 

 Mechanics' Institute fair in San Francisco, 

 Mr. C. 0. Coleman, of Honolulu, Sandwich 

 Islands, exhibited a machine of his inven- 

 tion for the preparation of the fiber of the 

 ramie or China grass. From the descrip- 

 tion given, the process appears to be very 

 simple. The plant, freshly cut at its full- 

 ripe stage, is passed through a series of 

 rollers, being carried along by moving 

 ■wire screens. It dips into tanks filled with 

 steam, hot water, and bleaching-chemicals. 



The rollers crush the plant and squeeze 

 out the glutinous matter, which is absorbed 

 by the water and Steam. The mass is 

 passed through the machine as often as 

 may be necessary to dissolve and remove 

 all the extraneous gum and other elements 

 and to bleach the fiber itself. After each 

 submersion it is passed through rollers, 

 which squeeze out the water with the mat- 

 ter it has absorbed from the plant. It is 

 not even necessary to remove the leaves, as 

 these are separated by the machinery. The 

 fiber is not broken nor even weakened by 

 the process. This is an immense reduction 

 of labor from the manual process of India 

 and China, where a workman does well if 

 he secures a pound and a half of clean fiber 

 per day, making its cost about $150 per 

 ton. 



If this machine should realize the ex- 

 pectations of its inventor, it will solve at 

 once the problem of ramie-production in 

 this country. It is claimed that large 

 tracts of land in California will average 

 1,250 pounds of pure fiber per acre, calcu- 

 lating it at 10 per cent, of the entire bulk 

 of the plant. Others estimate the yield of 

 fiber at only 5 per cent., and the truth lies, 

 probably, between the two estimates. The 

 prepared fiber, formerly exported frotn Cali- 

 fornia to England, passed through the cus- 

 tom-house at a declared value of £9 to £80, 

 or $45 to $400 per ton. It is claimed that 

 Coleman's machine will clean the fiber at 

 a cost of $20 to $30 per ton. 



Agricultural experiments in New 

 Jersey.— Results of experiments by Dr. 

 George H. Cook in growing corn on the 

 Agricultural College farm are reported as 

 follows : The corn was planted on plots of 

 one-tenth of an acre each. On two plots 



