72 
It will be noticed that the best results are rei in 1888 were at the 
rate of 120 pounds of dry ribbons par day of 10 hours. This was with 
the de Landtsheer small machine. n 1889 this aata with improve- 
ments, produced at the rate of 287 atari of dry ribbons (more than 
double the quantity) for the same period. With the large machine 
make due allowance for the pith and wood lightly adhering to the wet 
ribbons) the returns of dry ribbons would be at the rate of over half a 
ton per day. 
OTHER MACHINES AND PROCESSES. 
Before St gets this report itis desirable to pass under review a few of 
the machines and processes not represented at Paris which have recently 
come into iting in this country and elsewhere. In the absence. of 
to xpress | an authoritative opin n as the merits of such machines 
and processes. They are nadia es hero for dhe purpose of furnish- 
ing a more or less osek or record of Ramie experiments which have been 
otherwise would not be available to persons interested in the subject in 
India and the Colonies. 
THE DOTY SYSTEM. 
A system brought forward by e ain Doty {inventor of the Doty 
light) is based on the assumption that no decorticating machine, how- 
ever RERE will fully meet the requirements of Ramie planters, 
who are obliged, with the aid of unskilled labour, to deal with a large 
quantity of green Ramie stems within a short time. Captain Doty is 
of opinion that where labour is cheap, women and children might be 
employed to strip the fibre from the freshly cut stems by hand, and 
leave 80 per cent. of the weight of the crop (the wood) oh the field. 
Under such circumstances the ribbons alone would be carried away, 
either to be dried for exportation or to be treated at central factories 
or usines, firstly by a process of fermentation, and s subsequently by 
chemical cleaning and w washing to produce filasse sed? for spinni 
“ Notwithstanding,” says Captain Doty, “the failures of all previous 
“attempts to deal with this fibre by fermentation it is almost self- 
“ evident that a fermentive treatment is the only possible solution of 
“the problem. No 2> ha nical emg that can be devised will ever 
“ eliminate the gum by whic e fibres are cemented together, and 
“ without the alimination of ae rii m the division and sub-division of 
* the fibres necessary to produce a delicate filasse can never be 
“ obtained.” 
A trial of the Doty system recently took place near Rome, and a 
report thereon was prepared by Signor G. Trombetta, Secretary to the 
Italian Ministry of Agriculture, end published in the Bolletino di 
Notizie Commerciale, Sept. Ist, 1889, pp. 689-690. In this report it is 
stated oe the sy! Pe is based o on the Pest sh ge to which the 
eng my 8 
ut an 
chemical ingredients for two hours, washed 4 in cold Silken pr dried and 
combed. The report conéludes by stating that the fibre was in some 
es al character jour. and quali ity, due to the 
provisional nature of the appliances used ; but the ceai obtained on a 
ME is Ree al 
Pe oe een ae 
