CHINA-GRASS AND RAMIE 



Shoemakers' 

 Thread. 



Panjab. 



No Native 

 Cultivation. 



BCEHMERIA 

 NIVEA 



United Provinces 



is now and again employed by the hill tribes as a source of fibre, and 

 is best known to commerce by the name of Nilgiri Nettle. Amongst the 

 Shans the true rhea is, however, fairly extensively grown, and under the 

 name of gun. The fibre is separated by scraping off the cuticle, then break- 

 ing out the core of wood. It is twisted into thread and woven into small 

 bags, or employed in sewing leather sandals, etc., on account of its great 

 strength. A modern European use of rhea is the manufacture of shoe- 

 makers' thread. The Shan bags are similar to the Naga bags made of 

 wild riha or Vittebrunea integrifolia (see p. 164). 



Panjab. Far away to the north-west, in the mountainous district 

 of Kangra in the Panjab, the first European investigator (following 

 on the path of Col. Hannay on the north-eastern frontier) was Mr. 

 J. Montgomery, to whom reference has already been made. In pur- 

 suance of India's sporadic policy of research Montgomery was 

 allowed to import direct from China, at a great cost and after much 

 loss of time, six China-grass plants. A reference to Col. Hannay, 

 in Upper Assam, would have procured not only a large supply of the 

 self-same plant (at a comparatively nominal cost), but would have 

 secured at the same time full details of the methods of cultivation, 

 as also the experience gained by him. There is no local rhea 

 cultivation in these provinces similar to that described in Bengal, Assam 

 and Burma. I have already admitted, however, that I consider Kangra 

 well suited for rhea cultivation, though it is by no means so favourably 

 placed as Upper Assam or Northern Burma. It hardly seems necessary, 

 therefore, to review Montgomery's results further than has been 

 already briefly indicated. His plantation was an exceedingly small one, 

 on rich, loamy soil, annually enriched by river silt. The plants grew 

 vigorously, were remarkably healthy, and the estimate of yield framed on 

 the results obtained from a selected number of stems (1,000) was originally 

 750 Ib. to the acre, but five years later a fresh estimate raised the outturn 

 to 972 Ib. It has since been admitted on all hands that estimates based 

 on a selected number of stems, or even on small plots of garden land, are 

 utterly untrustworthy. 



United Provinces. In these provinces numerous experiments have 

 been performed, and moreover the trials of fibre-extracting machines, 

 conducted under the auspices of the Government of India, were held 

 at Saharanpur. According to Col. Hyde's report, the results obtained 

 might be thus expressed : two cuttings a year were all that could 

 be expected, though if liberally manured and watered, three might be 

 obtained. The green stems yielded from 1 acres came to 3 tons, 

 but 480 Ib. of useless stems had to be rejected, reducing the produce 

 to 7,360 Ib. of stems or 3'28 tons, which yielded by Mr. Greig's 

 machine 207 Ib. of fibre. Adding the second and a possible third cutting, 

 the annual total yield would have been considerably under 300 Ib. filasse 

 or clean fibre per acre. Sir George King, while Superintendent of the 

 Botanical Gardens, Saharanpur, discussed in 1869 the results obtained at 

 Dehra Dun. He very properly observed that being " on the ground all 

 the year round, both rabi and Man/ land rents must be debited against 

 the crop, and also water rent, where irrigation is necessary. Besides this, 

 allowance must be made for more manure than the Native cultivator 

 usually puts on his land." But if well manured and watered, Sir George 

 thought three cuttings might be obtained. 



152 



Special 

 Cultivation 



Estimated Yield 

 972 Ib. 



United 

 Provinces. 



Experiment. 



Yield of Green 

 Stems. 



Expensive 

 Cultivation. 



