124 RAMIE CULTIVATION IN PERAK. 



In the foregoing correspondence Mr. Matliieu urges the 

 impossibility of producing riblDons bj boiling the stems and 

 ha,nd scutching, but as it has been done there is no reason why- 

 it could not be done again. This j)i't>cess is known as the 

 " Fleury-Moriceau" process, and was worked at the Paris Ex- 

 hibition of 1889 and, according to the official report made for 

 the Grovernmeut of India, and pviblished in the Keiv Bulletin, 

 one small tank was proved by actual trial to be capal>le of 

 turning out one hundred and sixty -six pounds of clry fibre 

 per day of ten hours. The time of boiling was from five to 

 fifteen minutes, according to the age of the stems. These are 

 facts which shew that the boiling jjrocess can hold its own with 

 most if not any of the decorticators at present invented. It is 

 also to be remembered that there is no loss of fibre by this 

 process, that the whole of the wood is removed, that the ribbons 

 are not broken or twisted in any way, and that they are in 

 excellent condition for passing straight into the de- gumming 

 tanks. Any person witli a certain amount of mechanical ability 

 would have no difficulty in improving the process so that a tank 

 would turn out twice the amount stated and at the same time 

 reduce the handling to a minimum. This would be done by 

 using the waste heat to raise the temperature of the stems 

 to near the boiling point before actually going into the bath, 

 and by having a continous mechanical traveller to put them 

 through the apparatus in place of doing it by hand in batches. 

 There would appear to be no difficulty in designing a boiler 

 of this description capable of treating the annual produce of one 

 acre of land in the space of three days. If carefully designed so 

 as to prevent the loss of heat, the stalks would supply all 

 the fuel necessary, and two men should be able to work it and 

 scutch the stems. 



The machine which took the gold medal at the last trials in 

 Paris was the "Faure" machine, which has already been men- 

 tioned. It is sold at £36 in London, and appears to turn 

 out fibre nearly equal in value to hand prepared China- grass. 

 The London agent, Mr. T. Barraclough, also advertises to 

 supply apparatus for de- gumming quite fi'ee from all patent 

 rights. 



