Hoiling with 



..f QMMB if 

 loda. 



(Tatar. 



Retting 



Unsatisfactory- 



BCEHMERIA 



I'KKl'A RATION OK FIIWK NIVEA 



Separation 



tioii nt the tibre prevalent' during his time, he says, "The fr> 



ut, and steeped in water to procure the fibres of the bark." 

 ;,.\\. ii that u;is the systi'iu pursue<l in 1807, it has since changed com- 

 1 have only come across one or two persona who have spoken 

 r the use of water in the separation of the fibre. Col. H. H. StanshVM. 

 leaking of Bhagalpur, described a process of slow boiling, simmering 

 MIIU' in water. To the boiler was added crude carbonate of soda 

 .'//<), the stems being boiled in this for 1$ to 2 hours. The shoots 

 re then taken out and beaten on a board in contact with running 

 iter. Tliev were next returned to the boiler and simmered for another 

 iur. then beaten again in running water till the bark and gum were 

 ritvly removed. The ribbons were then drawn through a rough carding 

 hine to remove all adhering woody tissues. It is said that a maund 

 shoots could be thus easily worked per hour, and yield 2 per cent, yield 21 per 

 til i re ready for spinning. Mr. Montgomery tells us that he had tried cent> 



on the green and dried stems as well as on the green and dried 

 1. in running water and in stagnant, both cold and hot. The results 

 re uniformly unsatisfactory. These then (with Hannay's process 

 steaming, shortly to be described) are the only passages with which I 

 familiar where a process of retting or of boiling are spoken of as 

 iving been actually tried or used in India. It has, however, been 

 en fly announced that the Algerian method of retting in sea- water use of 



proved an unqualified success. If that be so, a great difficulty the Sea-wat * r - 

 loval of the gum has been once more satisfactorily overcome. Mr. 

 Hooper (Curator Industrial Museum, Calcutta) performed recently 

 experiment with artificially prepared sea-water and reported his 

 suits. His observations have been reproduced in many Indian news- 

 ipers [cf. Capital ; Indian Planting and Gardening, etc.], and unfavour- 

 ahlv criticised in the Anglo-Indian Review. The Madras Mail, com- 

 menting on this reawakening of interest, observes that " hope lives 

 ?rnal in the human breast, and there is no inherent reason why in this 

 ticular case hope should tell but a flattering tale." 



Remunerative Market. Many writers including myself have for Market. 

 irs past urged, however, that it is not a machine nor a process that 

 wanted, but a remunerative market. The Chinese method is perhaps Chinese Method. 

 nearly perfect as attainable with the people and the conditions 

 icerned. It is unapproached by any European invention or Indian 

 ligenous process [cf. Letter in South Ind. Observ., March 1902]. More- 

 er the Chinese production is on a large scale which leaves apparently 

 sufficient margin to meet present European demands. 



As witnessed by me in Bengal and Assam the fibre is obtained purely and 

 simply by hand scraping. Ribbons are never prepared by the Natives, since 

 the bark is removed before the fibre is stripped from the twigs. The following 

 passage from my original report gives an account applicable, I believe, to the 

 whole of Assam and Bengal at the present day : " The stems are required to 

 go through a process of drying, hence rainy weather or even cloudy days during 

 the drying stage are supposed to injure the fibre. The shoots are at once stripped 

 of their leaves, and the leaves are very generally returned to the field as manure. 

 The shoots are then carried to the dwellings of the cultivators, and by means of 

 a bamboo knife or scraper are deprived of the bark and the green succulent Stems scraped, 

 outer-tissue around the fibre. It is regarded as essential that all the plants 

 should be scraped or decorticated within 24 hours after being cut. The stalks 

 are then laid out on the ground in some dry situation and exposed to the sun Drying the 

 during day and removed within doors at night to avoid the dews, and this Stems, 

 method of drying is continued for some 4 to 10 days. The stems are thus com- 



155 



Ribbons never 

 prepared. 



Separation of 

 Fibre. 



