42 CORDAGE FIBRES 



but if root-cuttings be planted two crops are usually gathered. 

 An acre will produce about 16 tons of green stems per annum, 

 if four crops be taken, and from these stems about 130 st. 

 of fibre may be extracted. If the plant be produced from 

 seed, the latter should be germinated in open boxes placed 

 under cover. The most approved way is to first fill all the 

 boxes with earth and then spread over the surface a thin 

 layer of fine loam in which the seeds are mixed. No water- 

 ing should be done for fully a week, when the seed-leaves 

 begin to appear. The plants may then be watered with a 

 fine watering-can. When the young plants are about 2 or 3 in. 

 high they should be carefully transplanted into specially pre- 

 pared beds, care being taken that the roots are kept sur- 

 rounded with a ball of earth. They should be set at a 

 distance of about 3 ft. from each other, as in this way too 

 much branching is prevented, branching producing short 

 fibre. When the stalks are long enough they are cut down. 

 The stalk is built up of woody matter, of the fibre, of gum, 

 and of an exterior skin or epidermis, the removal of which 

 is most difficult and forms the object of the decorticating 

 process. 



Decortication should be practised on the stems when in' a 

 green state, because when they become dry the outside skin 

 becomes hard and brown and most difficult to remove. Up 

 to the present time no machine has been found to give such 

 good results, as regards yield and clean fibre, as the manual 

 process practised by the women and children in China, who 

 produce from the ramie or rhea plant the fibre known as China 

 grass. Hand decortication is a long and costly process, because 

 a woman can produce only a few pounds of fibre per day. This 

 she does by placing a few green stems on a flat board and 

 scraping them with a piece of wood in order to remove the 

 woody matter with as much of the gum as possible. China 

 grass produced in this way costs about 50 or 60 per ton. 

 A good decorticating machine should do the work as well as 



