RAMIE, RHEA, CHINA GRASS, OR NETTLE FIBRE. 



transfer them to the nursery in specially-pre- 

 pared beds, planting them 3 in. apart. If 

 taken out with a ball of earth round their 

 roots they bear transplanting well, and from 

 that time need only the usual amount of atten- 

 tion and care which all young plants require 

 shading, watering, and weeding. 



Propagation by stem or root cuttings is gen- 

 erally assumed to be the most expeditious, 

 producing a crop more quickly than by sowing. 

 It may be so in the case of a small acreage 

 say, 500 acres. If 10,000 cuttings are procured 

 for purposes of propagation, one may, after six 

 months (it is not advisable to do so before) 

 obtain a supply of root and stem cuttings 

 say, twenty from each original stool which will 

 bring the number of cuttings up to 200,000, 

 capable of planting sixteen acres. Six 

 months later, 4,000,000 cuttings imv be ob- 

 tained, capable of stocking, under favourable 

 circumstances, about 315 acres. It will be 

 fully eighteen months before the full acreage 

 of 500 acres will be supplied. During that 

 time there will have been but few, if any, stems 

 available for crop, as they will have been cut 

 up for purposes of propagation. 



It is well known that propagation by cut- 

 tings is apt to bring degeneration, and it is 

 necessary from time to time to revert to seed 

 to obtain a healthy stock of plants ; plants 

 grown from seed possess the tap root, and are 

 not so liable to spread their roots laterally to 

 an undue degree. This is shown by the prac- 

 tice followed by the Chinese themselves in the 

 cultivation of ramie : they reserve some of the 

 best stems for seeding purposes. Notwith- 

 standing the widespread opinion to the con- 

 trary, it appears that planting from seed is 

 the right method, and that every effort should 

 be made to follow it. In the few cases where 

 good seed is not procurable, but only cuttings, 

 it will undoubtedly be advantageous to reserve 

 some of the best plants thus raised exclusively 

 for seeding. When propagating from seed, a 

 small crop of fibre may be available for sale 

 the first year, the planting will be more sys- 

 tematic, and the growth of the stems more 

 uniform, a great desideratum in view of ob- 

 taining fibre of one standard and one quality. 

 The work of uprooting the stock plants grown 

 from cuttings is a laborious one, which is dis- 

 pensed with in the case of propagation by seed. 



Plantations raised from seed are longer lived 

 than those raised from cuttings. The Ram Ragh 

 estate, planted in 1878, is still giving crop, 

 notwithstanding the abandonment of cultiva- 

 tion consequent on the death of its owner in 



1880. Of this I have most precise and con- 

 clusive evidence recently given me by the pre- 

 sent occupier of the estate. Mr. C. Riviere, 

 director of Hamma Garden, Algiers, says : 

 " Our trial to raise ramie from seed proved 

 successful ; 250,000 fine plants were obtained, 

 remarkable mostly for their vigour, the size of 

 the foliage, the height of the stems, and the 

 fine development of their roots." 



Experience has shown that former ideas re- 

 specting the space required for plants need 

 modification. These were planted too far 

 apart, and as a consequence the stems freely 

 threw out branches. Each branch breaks the 

 continuity of the fibres, and causes a larger 

 proportion of short fibres. Too much space 

 between the plants also favours growth of 

 weeds. 



Many enterprising men have put forth great 

 endeavours to grow this fibre, and to bring it 

 into practical use, and their experience has 

 added materially to the general knowledge ; 

 but the growth of practical knowledge has 

 been slow and the resulting failures many. One 

 of the principal causes of this has been that 

 each man in his department has been working 

 with limited ideas, ignoring the fact that there 

 must be a combined working together in order 

 to ensure success. The planter has in many 

 cases planted ramie without understanding its 

 nature and requirements. The climate and the 

 soil have been unsuitable, the treatment of 

 the plants mistaken, the means of turning the 

 proceeds of the crop into a marketable article 

 have been wanting ; hence failure and disas- 

 ter. 



For many years there existed a strong 

 opinion especially in France that the most 

 practical way to treat ramie stems was to dry 

 them, and afterwards to decorticate them. The 

 idea was good so far as it went, because, as in 

 the ease of flax and hemp, there are many ad- 

 vantages to be gained by cutting the crop, 

 letting it dry, storing it, and extracting the 

 fibre later on, when the labour of the farm is 

 not otherwise occupied. It allows also of the 

 possibility of sending the dried stems in quan- 

 tities to central works to be treated on a large 

 and economical scale. In tropical countries the 

 drying process was a failure, because the stems 

 fermented instead of drying in the humid 

 climate, and artificial drying was too expensive 

 to be adopted. This opinion undoubtedly re- 

 tarded seriously the manufacture of ramie for 

 many years, because it was based on two 

 serious mistakes that have needed years to 

 expose and overcome. Each stem of ramie is 



