OTHER FARM CROPS 581 



fertilizers must be applied to bring it up to a good state of fertility. 

 All weeds must be removed from the soil or they will sorely plague 

 the cultivator in the first year or so until the plants have grown large. 

 When the climate will admit of producing three crops a year, the 

 cuttings are made at intervals of about ten or twelve weeks, the first 

 cuttings to be made about the middle of May, dependent on the 

 season. 



Status of the Ramie Industry. In order for the farmer to un- 

 derstand the present position of the ramie industry it would be use- 

 ful to adopt some kind of classification of the details connected with 

 it. In the first place there is the mere business of cultivating the 

 ramie plant, and of producing stems with the fiber in the best possi- 

 ble condition. This is purely the work of the planter. Secondly, 

 there is the process or processes necessary to separate the fiber from 

 the stems in the form of ribbons and filasse. It is necessary for many 

 reasons that this should be done either by the planter on the spot or 

 by a central factory close at hand. Thirdly, there is the purely 

 technical and manufacturing process in which ramie filasse is taken 

 up by the spinners, and utilized in the same manner as cotton, flax 

 and silk are utilized for the purpose of being made into fabrics. 



For the present purpose it may be taken for granted that the 

 cultivation of the ramie plant presents no insuperable difficulty. 

 Also that if a suitable selection of soil is made, and the locality pos- 

 sesses the necessary climatic conditions as regards heat and moisture, 

 there is no reason to doubt that ramie could be grown to greater or 

 less extent in most of the Southern States. As regards the second 

 stage, in which is involved the decortication of the ramie stems, the, 

 problem is by no means completely solved. 



On this really hangs the whole subject. The third stage is dis- 

 appointing and unsatisfactory because the second stage is still uncer- 

 tain, and being thus uncertain the fiber is necessarily produced in 

 small and irregular quantities, and only comes into the market by 

 fits and starts. It would appear that ramie fiber differs so essentially 

 from cotton and flax that it can only be manipulated and worked 

 into fabrics by means of machinery specially constructed to deal 

 with it. Owing to the comparatively limited supply of ramie fiber 

 hitherto in the market no large firms of manufacturers have thought 

 it worth while to alter the present or put up new machinery to work 

 up ramie fiber. If appliances or processes for decorticating Ramie 

 were already devised, and the fiber came into the market regularly, 

 and in large quantities say hundreds of tons at a time, there is no 

 doubt manufacturers would be fully prepared to deal with it. At 

 present the industry is practically blocked by the absence of any 

 really successful means of separating the fiber from the stems, and 

 preparing it cheaply and effectively. This after all is the identical 

 problem which has baffled solution for the last fifty years. There is 

 no question but that ramie culture will pay well when the industry is 

 fairly established ; and the very fact that it will prove so remunera- 

 tive will spur to greater effort to overthrow a] 1 remaining obstacles. 

 (U. S. Statistical R, 1.) 



