COST. 



and showing the seed capsule of a reddish yellow 

 colour. Pulling must be done by hand and 

 each handful laid aside with the root ends kept as 

 level as possible. In fine weather, after two days 

 these handfuls should be turned over, and after two 

 days more if sufficiently dry three or four handfuls 

 should be tied up in sheaves and stacked. When the 

 seed is mature it is threshed out and the strand is 

 now ready for retting. Threshing by native labour 

 here costs Rs. 2 per acre, by hand : if done by 

 machinery the cost would be much less. 



Up till now retting has been done here in two 

 ways — dew retting and water retting. No tank 

 retting on the Belgian system (by which method the 

 highest quality of fibre is produced) has as yet been 

 adopted. The strand is now ready for the mill and 

 passes out of the hands of the grower. 



A good crop should produce at least i>^ tons of 

 retted straw and 420 lbs. of cleaned seed per acre, 

 while a really first class crop should exceed these 

 figures by 25 per cent. 



To the grower the lower of these figures, even 

 taking the small percentage of 12% fibre and 10% tow 

 (samples have been proved 15% in this country) 

 means : — 



For straw ... ... Rs. 180 per acre. 



For seed ... ... Rs. 70 per acre. 



Rs. 250 per acre. 

 Straw is paid for by the factory at the present 

 time at the rate of Rs. 10 for 1% of fibre. 



The whole cost of cultivation, including seed 

 and all labour, until the straw is ready for the 

 factory should not exceed Rs. 62, which leaves the 

 very satisfactory profit to the grower of Rs. 188 per 

 acre. The immense advantage, however, when the 

 farmer or group of neighbouring farmers own their 

 own mill, will be apparent from the following factory 

 figures. 



In Belgium the usual size of factory is 40 scutch 

 mills, and it will probably be found that this is the 

 most economical unit of size in this country, as one 



4«; 



