LBCEHMERIA 

 RHEA FIBRE OF INDIA NIVKA 



Cultivation 

 ption of its cultivation in 1807 might be given as an account 

 of the rhea-pro.luction of to-day, and yet the cultivators gave 

 t invariaUy one answer to the itn|uirv made by me whv they 



t take to rhea. "Why should we?" they asked. "We have other Orop 

 other crops that pav quite as well and give infinitely !-; trouble." 

 To that I hail no very definite answer to offer. It would have been 

 u>. !(<-; to have made tlie assurance that if they were prepared to risk 

 a little, a large export ini^ht be developed and machinery invented that 

 woulil perhaps render rhea-fibre production both profitable and easy. 

 he Indian cultivator is neither willing nor able to undertake risks, still 

 to purchase machinery. Tobacco and ginger in Bengal and tea in 

 m are consequently likely to continue to occupy the land best suited 

 rhea, until European capital and enterprise come to the aid of local 

 urees. Dr. Buchanan-Hamilton drew the attention of the Indian 

 Itivators to rhea as a valuable fibre and expressed the hope that jute Rheawww 

 hich he also found in the same districts with rhea), a fibre then quite Jut *' 



nown in Europe, would not attract attention until san-hemp had 

 en given a fair trial. What has been the result of the hundred years that 

 ve come and gone ? Both rhea and san-hemp are in the identical 

 itions to-day that they were when Buchanan-Hamilton wrote ; in fact 

 anything they have gone backward, while jute has expanded into one 

 the most important crops of present-day Bengal agriculture. It cannot, 

 erefore, be said that in the region of rhea cultivation the farmers are op- 

 to such new crops as trade may demand, so long as they are profit- 

 >le. The undoubted answer to the present state of affairs must be that NO mducemeat 

 te has paid handsomely and rhea has hitherto offered no inducement ofle 

 extended production. 



Indian System of Cultivation. 



It may perhaps be as well to bring into prominence the admission 

 ,t it is impossible to furnish a definite statement of the cost of 

 uction and possible margin of profit in rhea cultivation. Though 

 ny writers have loudly condemned unfavourable opinions about the 

 ture of rhea and have given their personal assurance of ultimate 

 ccess, no one has been either able or willing to furnish actual data that 

 uld be accepted as representative. It may perhaps be the more convenient 

 urse, therefore, if I arrange province by province such material as exists 

 ;arding the methods of cultivation and experience gained generally. 

 Bengal: Eastern and Northern. Soil and Rotation. At Joyganj, in the Bengal, 

 istrict of Dinajpur, the late Rajah Syama Saukar Roy, Bahadur, ex- Native 

 rimented with rhea. He laid out several plots of high land that Experiment! 

 ntained a rich loamy soil and aggregated 600 acres. He placed the 

 ilantation thus formed under the charge of a European manager. The 

 nts grew remarkably well and gave three (sometimes four) cuttings Cuttings, 

 year. The experiment had to be discontinued, however, since the 

 price offered for the produce was not equal to actual cost of production. 

 The land was simply abandoned, and fourteen years later (the date of my Failure, 

 visit) not a plant of rhea was to be found, though much of the land 

 "had never subsequently been cultivated. In Rangpur district rhea indigenous 

 is fairly extensively grown, but with one or two exceptions not c* 1114 1101 

 ^s a field crop. It flourishes exclusively within the tobacco-growing 

 portions of the district, and most successfully where the finer qualities 

 of tobacco are produced. It demands the best soil; the land must be Bestsoi). 



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