VISTAS IN SILK AND RAMIE 



the silkworm farmers bring in. A responsible group of 

 eleven silk manufacturers are pestering him for a con- 

 tract for twenty thousand pounds of raw silk weekly, 

 and he promises to put in additional reeling machines as 

 fast as the supply of cocoons grows. 



Profits ? Minis says, "No promises at all. But anyone 

 ought to clear $200 an acre after the third year and it 

 is possible for a real hustler with skill and experience to 

 make a thousand." One thing that tickled my chemical 

 fancy is that already this infant industry plans to salvage 

 its waste product by recovering from the frozen chrysalis 

 an oil eagerly wanted by the cosmetic trade. 



Another famous Oriental fiber with more postwar 

 promises than silk is being Americanized in the South. 

 Ramie may not be as romantic and glamorous as the 

 luxurious filaments of the cocoon, but it is the most 

 amazing and provocative of all the natural textile fibers. 



To begin with, it comes from a plant that belongs to a 

 fairyland botany. It is a nettle without stings. It grows 

 seven or eight feet tall, not annually, but if cut, three 

 or four times a year. If its roots are frozen it dies, but if 

 the tops only are frost-killed, it makes up for lost time 

 by putting up more shoots and growing faster than 

 ever. This rank grower is a perennial and once properly 

 propagated it need not be replanted for ten years. Ramie 

 is seriously attacked by no insect or fungus. It is the 

 kind of plant a farmer dreams about. 



Ramie makes a ton of fiber per acre per year, two 

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