BCEHMERIA 



NIVEA 



Cultivation 



CHINA-GKASS AND RAMIE 



Selangor 

 Experience. 



Climatic 

 Influences. 



The Chinese 

 Plant. 



Singular 

 Uniformity of 

 Knowledge and 

 Purpose. 



Not a regular 



Agricultural 



Crop. 



A Garden 

 Plant. 



High Manure 



Essential. 



Rangpur 

 Cultivation. 



Local Price of 

 the Fibre. 



materials of cultivation prohibitive. This last statement might be compared with 

 the final experience of Mr. Cyril E. Baxendale of Selangor. That gentleman 

 seems to have been most unfortunate to say the least of it, for he tells us that his 

 correspondence with " ramie spinners would fill a massive tome." He could not 

 apparently dispose of some of his produce, and had to direct it to be burned in 

 order to save demurrage charges at Liverpool. As a not unnatural consequence 

 he adds, " We now leave the ramie to the cows. They like it." \Cf. Capital, 

 Aug. 11, 1904; Agri. Butt. Straits and Fed. Malay States, 1903, 359, 362-6; 

 and compare with Ind. Gard. and Plant., Dec. 15, 1898.] 



4. I have endeavoured to point out that the most satisfactory regular cultiva- 

 tion and the most promising experiments seen by me, have been those within 

 approximately the self-same latitudes as the successful production in China. In 

 other words, the southerly extremities of Rangpur and Bogra in Eastern 

 Bengal would be approximately in the latitude of Canton and Formosa, and 

 the most northerly Indian area (Kangra) in that of Nanking. Thus the Indian 

 area of successful production so far as ascertained by me corresponds fairly 

 closely with that of China, and I have urged that in dealing with the Chinese 

 form of the plant, at all events, it would be well in the future to concentrate 

 attention on the region indicated. And I may add that within the more southerly 

 limits of that area I found the plant by no means so vigorous as on the most 

 northerly, so that a northern rather than a southern extension would seem 

 most full of promise. Outside the area, more especially within tropical 

 tracts, it would appear likely, however, that good results might be obtained with 

 the Ramie or Malayan plant. 



Conditions of Cultivation. During my tour of inspection through 

 the Indian rhea districts I had frequent occasion to comment on the 

 singular uniformity that prevailed in the name given for the plant, the 

 character of the stock grown, the location of the plots of land under the 

 crop, the class of cultivators concerned, the method of cultivation 

 pursued, the system of separation of fibre employed, and the purpose 

 to which the fibre was put. These and many other points seemed 

 significant and highly exceptional in Indian agriculture as a whole, 

 where much diversity of opinion is usually manifested. In Bengal and 

 Assam the plant had to be grown in order to secure fibre wherewith 

 to make or repair fishing appliances, and there the matter began 

 and ended. Usually the Indian agriculturist shows interest in the 

 produce of his fields ; rhea is not an agricultural crop, it is a plant grown 

 by or for the fishermen ! In only one Sub-division of the Rangpur 

 district (Kurigaon), and even there in connection with but one or two 

 villages, was it found as a field crop in the hands of the regular cultivators 

 (mjbunsis). Everywhere else it was exclusively a garden plant found 

 on the homesteads of the fishing classes. On an average the plots would 

 not exceed 20 square feet in size, and were as a rule beds of pure manure 

 sometimes 2 feet in thickness, raised above the level of the surrounding 

 land, and closely fenced in to protect the plants from cattle which other- 

 wise would completely devour the crop. In China it is practically grown 

 on poudrette. A writer in The South Indian Observer (March 1902), who 

 professes to have a practical knowledge of rhea-growing both in India and 

 China, says that no part of India is in any sense a favourable field for 

 the introduction of the rhea-planting industry. [Cf with the reprint in Ind . 

 Plant, and Gard., June 1902, and compare also with Plant. Gaz., Dec. 1898.] 



A Garden, not Field Crop. In the whole province of Bengal it would 

 be difficult to find a better soil or a more enlightened class of cultivators 

 than in Rangpur, and yet few, if any, have taken to rhea, in spite of 

 the fact that the fibre fetches locally from 50 to 180 a ton and 

 even more fabulous prices. They have witnessed the plant being 

 grown by the fishermen for at least a century. Buchanan-Hamilton's 



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