SOUTHERN HORIZONS 



thousand pounds against cotton's two hundred and fifty. 

 The fiber is ninety-nine per cent pure cellulose, so it is 

 the most efficient cellulose factory available in the coun- 

 try. But it also produces a very interesting natural gum 

 and large quantities of pectin, both of which are re- 

 covered in cleaning the fiber. The tops contain little or 

 no fiber, but they bear the leaves and yield about three 

 tons of dehydrated cattle feed, containing twenty-five 

 per cent protein. This should be worth $50 a ton, or 

 $150 an acre. It would be hard to find a more glittering 

 chemurgic prospect than this useful vegetable giant. 



Ramie fiber is more astonishing than the plant. It is 

 eight times as strong as cotton, three times as strong as 

 sturdy hemp, and most remarkable of all, twice as strong 

 when wet as when dry. The individual fibers are four 

 feet long; when processed some eighteen inches or a 

 foot long. That is infinitesimal compared with the two- 

 thousand-foot silk filament, but flax is about a foot in 

 length, and cotton longer than an inch commands a 

 premium price. Ramie fiber is more quickly and more 

 highly absorbent than cotton or linen, and it dries out 

 faster. It does not shrink. It has a natural sheen like 

 silk. It can be woven or knitted on regular textile ma- 

 chinery either alone or in combination with cotton, silk, 

 wool, linen, and all synthetic fibers. It dyes level and 

 fast to light and washing. 



This is almost a vulgar display of textile virtues; 

 ramie's good properties seem too good to be true. Cer- 



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