74 
As described in the Kew capcom iri e 145-149, a Ramie 
factory established is Bi at Torro ontgri, Gerona, in the 
eree oie of large Ramie raene ee to have e proved suc- 
cessful. s factory employed the Favier decorticating machines. In 
a letter Ba the 19th October 1889, Mr. Wooldridge, Her Britannic 
Majesty’s Consul at Barcelona, informs us that “ Ramie is nie being 
“ cultivated with papori results near Torroella,” and that “they con- 
“tinue to use the Favier machines, which are believed to i the most 
s nge machines of their kin 
y be mentioned that these factories are being worked privately, 
t ay the methods and machinery are not available to the public, 
except under a special arrangement with M. Favier. The fibre prepared 
is utilised in France, and does not come into general commerce. 
In British tropical possessions, both in the East and West Indies, 
Ramie is being grown experi mentally, i in the hope that some machine or 
process will eventually be produced to pees the fibre to enter into 
commerce and become a regular article of tra 
The results of the Paris a reat year naturally discouraged Ramie 
growers, and little if any extension of Ramie planting has taken place 
since that time. The results of the recent trials will no a be ages 
scanned bY those interested in the subject. The first aim of plan 
should be to produce ribbons of good quality at the halha: t possible a 
In other words, planters have to solve the stion how e 
Ramie ribbons, that is, to secure the agge removal A the cortex 
(which contains the fibre re) from the green stems, at such a cost as will 
prove remunerative to themselves and at the s mi time allow sufficient 
margin for the cost of converting these Pia into filasse ready for 
the spinners. Hitherto the want of success in the production of ribbons 
has rash been the only obstacle to “the development of a Ramie 
indust And probably on this account the Paris trials were wholly 
devoted to the production of ribbons ai. not of iri The conversion 
of ribbons into filasse is a subject believed to be more easily dealt with. 
which appear to accomplish it. Some machines, it is true, have 
attempted to produce filasse by a single ai from the e green stems. 
The result has not been satisfactory, and it is very unlikely that this 
can be done with a plant like Ramie, in which the individual fibres are 
so completely immersed in gummy matter. Hence the subject has been 
divided in two parts. The first is concerned alone in the removal of the 
fibre in the form of ribbons from the green stems, either in the fields or 
in their immediate neighbourhood. The second is devoted to the treat- 
ment of these diets and to their conversion by chemical and other 
processes into filasse, or fine white silky fibres ready for the spinner. 
The first process will’ naturally take place where the plants are grown 
in the colonies or elsewhere, and machines like those of Favier and de 
Landtsheer, or processes like that of Fleury-Moriceau, may be adopted 
according to the special circumstances of the planter. Sufficient pro- 
ess has now been made in the working of these machines and processes 
to justify careful trials being undertaken with them both in India and 
the colonies. If these iare or any others that toy be forthcoming 
Le Patey satisfacto a low initial cost, 
e question of their sed een into filasse is one ses will natu urally 
Feet into ses ne e conversion of ribbons into filasse will very 
skilled labour are the more readily available. In some countries it may 
be found advisable later on to establish central factories or wsines on the 
spot (to save freight charges on the ribbons), and ship only the filasse 
