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competition, but was held under the auspices of the Société des 
Agriculteurs de France. brief notice is given in the Kew 
Bulletin (1891, pp. 277, 278). It was attended by the Director 
on behalf of the India Office. 
of Paris sewage. The growth of the crop was extremely vigorous 
and in,that respect left nothing to desire. The stems succumb to 
the first frost, which however does not appear to injure the roots. 
Six machines were submitted for competition ; of these only the 
four which received rewards require notice. 
Faure Machine. 
This received a gold medal. It admitted of being worked by 
hand, but the most satisfactory results were obtained when driven 
P h i 
the details. The leafy stems of China grass as cut from the 
plantation were fed on to a table from which they were drawn 
against. which these beaters worked was a quarter of a 
cylinder, the radius of which was smaller than that of the drum 
carrying the beaters. The space between these and the surface 
the drum. 
The Faure machine in this form produced clean ribbons without 
apparently bruising the fibre, but did not remove the epidermis. 
It had the advantage of working continuously, but did not always 
disengage the core from the butt-end of the stems. It required 
the attention of three men; two to feed and one to remove the 
ribbons re obtain fro 
fresh stems 41bs. (when dried) of ribbons in six minutes (or 
| hours) ; these ribbons 
2:6 per cent. 
The Faure machine of this type has however been apparently 
abandoned by its inventor. The form at present in use will be 
described subsequently. 
De Landtsheer Machine. 
This was not materially different in principle from that 
exhibited at previous competitions. It is described in the Kew 
