SKKA.FGAN.I SH'KRIOll KIHRK 



CORCHORUS 



Separation 



frequently in order to ascertain when the decomposition is complete. 

 ten this is the case the fibre is found to separate easily from the stem. 

 the ex. iet period must not be exceeded, otherwise the fibre becomes 

 n ami useless. 



Separation of Fibre. The cultivator then proceeds to separate and 

 in i ht> fibre. Standing up to his waist in the now foetid water, he 

 a handful of stems and beats the thick ends of these with a mallet, 

 assists in the separation. He then strips one after the other from 

 to end, and thus withdraws the canes entire. Taking up a large 

 idle of these ribbons, he now lashes them on the surface of the water 

 ul draws them towards himself by a sharp jerking motion which causes 

 . Ihering particles of tissue to be brushed off. Lastly with a dexterous 

 action he spreads out the handful of cleaned fibre on the surface and 

 thus exposes the still adhering particles, which he picks off by hand. The 

 water is finally wrung out, and the clean fibre thrown over a bamboo 

 lie.h has been fixed near by as a drying-rack. During the drying process 

 lich lasts for two or three days) the fibre is also bleached in the sun. 

 There are numerous minor modifications of this operation that need 

 be here detailed. But Leather (Agri. Ledg., 1896, No. 37, 384-9) has 

 ited out that in Serajganj district a modification of this process is 

 his opinion of special value. " A bundle," he says, "of about twenty 

 t is taken in the left hand and most of the adventitious root removed 

 the right hand. Then the man takes a small wooden " beater " about 

 at long with a 6-inch handle and flat sides, and after striking the 

 ttom ends of stems until they are all level, he beats the lower portion of 

 \ bundle so as to loosen the fibre, turning it in the left hand at the same 

 ic. He next breaks the bundle at about the centre, first one way, 

 jn the other. Then clasping it, still in the left hand, just above the 

 it of fracture, he strikes at the stems, with the beater, just below the 

 ture in a downward sort of way, and this knocks the wood stem out- 

 3, so that after a few sharp strokes, and a little violent agitation in 

 i water up and down, he can take hold of the stems and pull them out from 

 : fibre, leaving it almost free from wood " (I.e. 388). The subsequent 

 ming is the same as that detailed above. In fact the only difference 

 tween the description given by Leather and that of all other writers 

 Dears to be the more liberal use of the mallet as a first operation. He does 

 make it sufficiently clear that the stems are retted before the special 

 itment he has described is begun, but that doubtless is the case. Were 

 affirmed that less retting was pursued where beating was practised, 

 ere might be an advantage in the Serajganj system, but this does not 

 to be the case. Still, the method of treatment is said to be the 

 iuse of the superior quality of the fibre for which Serajganj is noted, 

 inerjei (Agri. Cuttock, 1893, 83-6) says that in Orissa the stalks are 

 an beaten against a platform until the pith within is removed. But 

 adds, " this mode is not to be recommended as the pith sticks get 

 aken and mixed up with the fibre, which itself gets knotted so that the 

 lole fibre has to be repicked.'* Machinery has also been frequently 

 jested and tried, but the retted fibre, if carefully prepared, is held to 

 softer and better than the machine-separated. Moreover, the retting 

 process costs only the labour it entails. It involves no expenditure of 

 capital an all-important consideration with poor cultivators. Primitive 

 it may be, but the retting process is eminently suited to the people and 



417 27 



Retting 



Ml bcpntaop i. 



Separation 

 of Fibre. 



Fibre. 



Liberal use of 

 the Mallet. 



Superiority of 



Sonfc.iiij 



Fibre. 



Machinery. 



