592 REPORT OF THE COMilTRSIONER OF AGRICULTURE. 



days will be required to steep it in water." Late-cut hemp is frequently 

 put into shocks after spreading without being bound up, a simple band 

 keeping the shock standing. Binding into sheaves, however, after cur- 

 ing, and placing in round stacks or ricks until spreading-time, is the best 

 practice. Manufacturers prefer a water-retted hemp, and the iSTavy regu- 

 lations are said to call for it ; the price, however, for cordage hemp has 

 hardly warranted the expenditure of the extra labor required, and our 

 farmers, as a general rule, dew-ret their hemp. With the demand for spin- 

 ning-hemps at better prices there will be a call for water-retted fiber. 

 Farmers are not only unwilling to take the trouble, but few have the 

 necessary skill or appliances. Retting by water has been carried on in 

 a small way in Illinois ; and it is said that Henry Clay introduced the 

 practice into Kentucky, but it was not followed for reasons given above. 



Mr. Proctor says that the best time for spreading hemp for dew-ret- 

 ting is in November or December, but it is well to begin spreading sooner 

 if there is a large crop, that the labor of breaking may be commenced 

 earlier. Hemi^ retted in winter is of a brighter color than that spread 

 in October. It is usually stacked and spread upon the same ground 

 upon which it is grown, and when sujBQciently retted, as can be deter- 

 mined by breaking out a little, it is again put into shocks. If the hemp 

 be dry the shoclts should be tied around the top tightly with a band of 

 hemp to keep out the rain. The shocks are made firm by tying with a 

 band the first armful or two, raising it up and beating it well against 

 the ground. The remainder of the hemp is set up around this central 

 support. By flaring at the bottom and tying well a firm shock can be 

 made that will stand firmly without danger of being blown over by the 

 wind. 



The slat hand-brake is used in Kentucky, the machines being carried 

 around the field to avoid the removal of the hemp straw. 



EAlillE. 



The question of ramie cultivation, which attracted so much attention 

 in the South some years ago, is not by any means a dead issue, or an 

 abandoned experiment. The results obtained at that time proved that 

 the plant was successfully introduced into the country, though its suc- 

 cessful production — as far as making its cultivation an industry was con- 

 cerned — fell short of the mark. The cultivation of ramie has been 

 carried on in lat« years — in a small way, it is true — in Xew Jersey, un- 

 der tbe direction of Emil Lefranc, the veteran ramie culturist of Lou- 

 isiana, with a fair measure of success. 



Mr. Lefranc writes me that winter is not so gTeat an obstacle as it is 

 thought to be. Covering the plants saved them well enough last year, 

 and as it gives three crops a year in its ISTorthern home there is almost 

 the same chance of profit here as in the South with more cuttings. Five 

 crops have been cut in Louisiana the same year. 



A number of gentlemen in the vicinity of IvTewark and Philadelphia 

 have grown ramie during the previous year, and I am informed that 

 parties in Maryland jiropose to go into its cultivation quite extensively. 



Mr. Dennis, of Newark, has purchased land in Virginia, which he ex- 

 pects to devote to ramie cultivation, and now that the New Jersey legis- 

 lature has passed a bounty bill encouraging its production in the Stat« 

 we may look for others embarking in it for profit. Another encourage- 

 ment is the recent invention of a ramie machine, described upon an- 

 other page, which does its work most effectively, and removes one of 

 the greatest obstacles to successful ramie production. 



The ramie plant, Boehmeria teiiacissima^ was first introduced into this 

 country in 1855, from the botanical gardens of Jamaica, and cultivated 



