RAMIE, CULTIVATION OP. 



REFORMED CHURCHES. CC5 



a hollow square, and include mills of 4.500 

 spindles ami a special twisting and combing ap- 

 jiaralus for the material for hank notes. The 

 factory also spins ramie thread for /HIM ,///////// 

 an<l bodery, most of which is shipped to Eng- 

 land. < iermaii). and Spain. 



In Austria ;i process for preparing ramie fiber 

 lias heei i patented liy Th. Kg. Scliiefncr. and is 

 in successful operation in a mill at Hregcnz, 

 which has been in operation since June, 1WIO, 

 and anotherat Kmniendingen, Haden. Dr. Karl 

 I la-sack says: " By tliis process is obtained a 

 filler of pale, yellowish-while color and of silken 

 lu.-ter. It is prepared in comhing machines for 

 spinning, and finally spun to yarn. Yarns are 

 sometimes found in the market raw white, hut 

 generally are bleached or colored, or 'lusteml,' 

 in the mills. The last operation imparts to the 

 fiber its complete beauty and silk luster, while 

 raw yarn looks rough and dull on account of 

 numerous projecting fiber ends. The factories 

 at Bregenz and Emmendingen spin in tingle, 

 double, triple, etc., 15 different sizes of thread." 

 "In Germany," says the same authority, "it is 

 in frequent use by the manufacturers of Berlin, 

 Apolda, and Liegnitz, and its employment is 

 daily gaining ground. Italy and Spain have 

 also taken it up.'' 



In all countries of Europe ramie has been 

 worked almost wholly upon line-spinning ma- 

 chinery, where it is necessary to keep the fila- 

 ments straight, or parallel, like flax or silk. 

 Both silk and woolen machinery (that for work- 

 ing " long wool ") have been used abroad, though 

 the best results of all seem to be produced by 

 flax machinery, modified to the requirements of 

 the new fiber. In the United States the Govern- 

 ment and private citizens became interested in 

 the fil)er from the showing in the London Exhibi- 

 ion of 1851 ; in 1855 specimens were obtained 

 for examination, and experiments in culture and 

 manufacture were at once introduced. At the 

 Paris Exposition of 1889 the United States ex- 

 hibit of ramie, while not large, was sufficient to 

 show that superlative qualities of the fiber can 

 be produced here in unlimited quantities. The 

 Government sent a special agent to the Exposi- 

 tion, who reported on the products, machines, 

 and manufactured fabrics there shown, and fur- 

 ther efforts have been made in many ways to- 

 ward establishing the industry here. 



New Jersey some years ago passed a bounty 

 law for the cultivation of the plant, and in 

 Pennsylvania it has been grown with some suc- 

 cess ; also in North Carolina, South Carolina, Vir- 

 inia, Georgia, Louisiana, and elsewhere, but the 

 ata of actual crops are difficult to. obtain ex- 

 cept from California, and little more than ex- 

 perimental plantings have been made. Califor- 

 nia, in 1891, passed an act for the purpose of 

 encouraging the cultivation of ramie in the 

 State, and appropriated $5,000 each for the two 

 following years to be expended under direction 

 of the State Board of Agriculture for the pur- 

 chase of ramie roots to the extent of $1,000 

 worth in one year, for free distribution to farm- 

 ers, and in the payment of a bounty of 1 cent a 

 pound for merchantable ramie fiber. Prof. Ilil- 

 gard says : " By actual trial, the culture of ramie 

 has been found to be readily feasible in all the 

 larger valley regions of the State so far as the 



successful growth of the plant i concerned, but 

 it will doubt less prove most profitable where a 

 long growing season combined with irrigation 

 permits of making 8 or 4 cuts annually. In the 

 KITH valley there is little difficulty in getting 4 

 cuts of good size and quality, and the mine is 

 probably true on the stronger soils as far north 

 a- Fresno, and southward in the valley of south 

 California. In the Sacramento valley 3 cute can 

 doubtless be obtained when irrigation is em- 

 ployed, or in naturally moist land. At Berkeley 

 and elsewhere on the immediate coast 2 cuts 

 (the second usually a small one) are all that can 

 be counted on, but in the warm valleys of the 

 Coast range there may be from 2 to 8 full crops. 

 Experiments at the Berkeley Station show an 

 average rate of about 9,000 pounds of dry stalks 

 per acre for the first cut and about 5,210 pounds 

 for the second." Mr. McAfee, of Bakersfield, 

 Cal., says the best fiber is produced when 3 in- 

 stead of 4 cuts a year are made. The total 

 yield of 8 will not differ materially from that 

 of 4. The San Joaquin Valley Experimental 

 Station reports that ramie grows there suc< 

 fully, even on light alkali soils, and that it has 

 been distributed to many farmers. 



The first United States patent for a decorti- 

 cator was taken put Sept. 17, 1867, by Dr. Benito 

 Roezl, and within the next few years hundreds 

 of the machines were made in New Orleans and 

 offered for sale at $225 each; but they failed 

 to work successfully. Other inventions have 

 followed with no better success, and within 

 the past four years at least 10 American ma- 

 chines have been brought before the public. 

 The Agricultural Department, in September, 

 1892, authorized a trial of ramie decorticators 

 at the Louisiana Sugar Experiment Station, 

 and the Oakburne Plantation, at Lafayette, 

 La., grew stalks to afford tests of ten-hour trials, 

 instead of the usual tests of a few minutes. But 

 3 machines were entered, and none of them 

 could work the usual run of fiber stalks as they 

 come from the field ; or. after running well for 

 a short time, they clogged long before the limit 

 of time was reached. 



Both coarse and fine yarns have been carded 

 and spun in this country on cotton and wool 

 machinery, without alteration, and this by the 

 ton. These yarns bring 75 cents to $1 a pound 

 in the gray, and in colors $1.50 to $2 a pound. 

 Cotton, worsted, and silk colors all take readily, 

 and are fast, and jet black has been produced 

 here for the first time. A firm of New England 

 experimenters, in 1890, first degummed and 

 spun ramie in an economical manner. Their 

 degumming is carried only to the point where a 

 tf/OMfl is produced, which, when separated and 

 broken into short lengths on the Fearnaught & 

 Garnet machines, is sufficiently soft and pliant 

 to work well on woolen machinery. Since then 

 some spinners of Paterson. N. J., have produced 

 a high grade of table linen, toweling, laces, 

 plush, chenille, and other fabrics from line 

 ramie, the natural combed fiber. In Jersey City 

 a large company has been established to d"egum 

 for American manufacturers Chinese ramie. 



REFORMED CHIRCHES. I. Reformed 

 Church in America. The following is a sum- 

 mary of the statistics of fhis Church as they 

 were reported to the General Synod in June, 



