RAMIE 129 



manufacture of fabrics known as " grass-cloths." 

 It could be used for the manufacture of many 

 materials for which cotton, wool, or flax is now 

 employed. It has been used successfully in com- 

 bination with wool for the production of certain 

 classes of fabrics. The fibre is woven into goods of 

 various descriptions, such as lace, curtains, handker- 

 chiefs, tablecloths, counterpanes, plush, carpets, 

 and even clothing materials. It is also employed for 

 the manufacture of mantles for incandescent gas 

 lighting, and is said to furnish an excellent paper- 

 pulp suitable for making bank-notes. 



Most of the ramie fibre at present employed in 

 Europe is imported from China. Experiments have 

 shown, however, that the plant is capable of growth 

 in most British Colonies and Dependencies, and that 

 it could be cultivated on a large scale if the demand 

 for the fibre were sufficient to warrant such an under- 

 taking. With regard to West Africa, successful 

 experiments were carried out at Kangahun in Sierra 

 Leone in 1909. Scraped ribbons of 3 to 4! feet in 

 length were produced, but these were not sufficiently 

 free from the outer bark to be comparable with hand- 

 cleaned China grass ; ultimate fibres extracted from 

 them at the Imperial Institute were found to be of 

 normal character. The plant has also been culti- 

 vated with success in the Cameroons. 



During recent years the value of hand-cleaned 

 China grass in the London market has varied between 

 30 and 50 per ton, whilst occasional consignments 

 of the so-called rhea ribbons, from which the outer 

 bark has not been removed, have realised from 10 to 

 1$ per ton. 



The ramie industry has not yet attained very large 

 dimensions. Planters hesitate to grow the crop 

 on a commercial scale unless they can be assured of 

 a market for it. Spinners, on the other hand, com- 

 plain of the irregularity of supplies and the high price 

 of China grass, and therefore do not feel justified in 

 establishing special mills for the manufacture of ramie 

 goods. 



