RAMIE CULTIVATION IN PERAK. 115 



The question that was put to me was whether the Government should 

 advise and encourage natives and others to plant ramie with the idea of 

 selling the ribbon to the Gomess and other Companies, who have been 

 offering to buy it, at £7 to £8 per ton. I wrote to the British Resident, 

 under date the 20th December, 1896 — "It is taking a great responsibility 

 to recommend planters to cultivate a product which, according to the in- 

 formation now available, is not likely to pay exiaenses," I now see by your 

 letter of the 17th instant that natives have been advised in Singapore to 

 plant ramie, with unfortunate results. 



Many thanks for your estimate which, however, I have already read. 

 I now return it to you. I think the labour is put at too low a figure for 

 Perak. A Kling expects to get at least §9 per month, and a Chinaman 

 from $10 to §12. You see the wages paid in the mines are very high, and 

 the hours only about two - thirds of those on an estate. 



According to your estimate it requires practically half a ton of clean 

 fibre per acre per annum to cover the expenses of working the 500 acre 

 estate. I fancy that, as yet, we have no data to go by in this part of the 

 world as to the yield, and that the first thing that should be d(jne by 

 anyone interested in the culture is to plant up a small area and get 

 accui'ate information as to what is the actual yield of fibre per acre 

 before investing or recommeneling others to invest, large sums in start- 

 ing the cultivation on an extensive scale. I have ventured to recommend 

 that the Government should take up this work in Perak, as it seems to be 

 the best way in which help can be given to those who are contemplating 

 going into ramie cultivation. 



I am Dear Sir, 



Yours truly, 

 E. Mathiku, Esq., (Siyned) L. Wray, Jun. 



Singapore. 



{Mr. E. Mathieu, to the Curator, Perak Museum.) 



SiGLAP E.STATE, SINGAPORE. 



Dear Sir, 7th April, 1897. 



I beg to confirm my letter of the 15th ultimo and, judging by your 

 able report that you take a genuine interest in the question, I venture 

 to send you a sample of ramie fibre as it comes out of the " Faure " 

 machine, and as I received it by yesterday's mail from Mr. Th. liar- 

 raclough, London. It is accompanied by the following letter: — 



" In reply to your letter of the 6th February, I send you a sample of 

 fibre in exactly the state in which it left the " Faure " machine. I was 

 present several days at the running of the machine last October, on Mr. 

 Faure's estate in France. 



" The machine was placed alongside the plantation, worked by a small 

 portable engine, and the stems were brought to it. After the fibre was 

 extracted it was hung over poles to dry in the open air, and the sample I 

 send you is some of the fibre which was then extracted. 



" The machine fibre is worth, to-day, in this market, £32 per ton, less 

 2^ per cent. It ranks with the best China -grass gi-own in a jiarticular 

 province of China, and eagerly bought up by a German manufacturer, 

 which may be called "Host Best China -grass," and which is to-day worth 



