352 COST OF PRODUCING RHEEA FIBRE. 
the cultivators had any inducement to grow it. The expense 
seems to be about five rupees a maund; for Major Hannay, 
referring to the fact of £20 a ton having been offered for any 
quantity in Calcutta, observes that, as ‘it costs at least five rupees 
per maund, you will see that it can scarce be sent to Calcutta 
at the price offered. He says, also, that if any cheaper 
method of separation from the stalk could be discovered it 
would undersell all other fibres.” 
From the mode of expression adopted as above by Major Han- 
nay, the Author was led to think that the whole expense for the 
production of the fibre was five rupees a maund. But in another 
place he says, the expenses of cultivation are ten rupees a 
maund. Capt. Jenkins (‘Journ. Agri-Hort. Soc.,’ viii, p. 379) 
also says, the present cost is ten rupees a maund; but as 
the plant can be grown with the least possible trouble, and the 
preparation of the Flax from it is a very facile process, he states, 
that “there is no doubt the Flax can be grown at half this 
price.” The dearness is no doubt owing partly to only small 
quantities being produced for the use of the fishermen, who do 
not for their purposes require very large quantities. Mr. Henley, 
in a letter in the ‘Journ. Agri-Hort. Society,’ says, that “it 
must necessarily be a much more expensive article than either 
Sunn or Jute, inasmuch as a labourer can prepare one and a 
half to two maunds of Jute per day’s work, whilst of the 
Kunchoora he cannot manufacture more than as many seers.” 
It is evident that some improved method of separation is the 
most essential requisite. 
“ Various attempts have been made to make this fibre more 
generally known, and to bring it into demand as an article of 
commerce.” (The early experiments have already been mén- 
tioned.) “It has frequently been sent by Col. Jenkins, and the 
officers employed in Assam, to the Agri-Horticultural Society 
of Calcutta. Mr. Henley, and others, have sent small quan- 
tities to the markets of this country, but without attracting 
much attention, or selling it at remunerating prices. Samples 
were sent by Major Hannay, Capt. Reynolds, Baboos Deena 
Nath, and Lokenath, to the Exhibition of 1851, when honora- 
ble mention was made of their exertions. 
“A Prize Medal was, however, awarded for some beautifully 
white and silky looking fibre sent by the Singapore Com- 
