DESCRIPTIVE CATALOGUE. 



89 



elements to the roots of the plants. Ahout 7,000 pounds of stahle manure, or 525 

 to 615 pounds of chemical fertilizers or oil cake are used per acre. Allison recom- 

 mends 300 pounds of cotton-seed meal and 300 pounds of kainit per acre. 



The plant is propagated hy seeds, by cuttings, or by layers, and by division of the 

 roots. When produced from seed, open-air planting can hardly be relied upon, 

 plants started in the hotbed giving the best results. After planting, the seeds are 

 covered thinly with sifted earth and kept shaded from the sun until the young plants 

 are 2 or 3 inches high. In five or six weeks they will be strong enough to trans- 

 plant to the field. The most practical method is propagation by a division of the 

 roots of old or fully matured plants. (See fig. 35.) 



In preparing tbe land for a plantation, thorough tilth — that is, deep plowing and 

 cross harrowing — is essential, which should be done in the fall. The ground is fre- 

 quently broken to a depth of 15 inches or more, but never less than a depth of 12 

 inches, to secure good results, and lumpy land is rolled. Before x>lanting, the ground 

 is again cross plowed, harrowed, and rolled, about the 

 1st of February being a good time for the work. The 

 roots are usually set in rows 4 to 5 feet apart, and 1 

 foot to 15 inches in tho row, although practice differs 

 in different sections. 



The estimated cost of establishing a ramie planta- 

 tion in the United States per acre is about $60, includ- 

 ing purchase of 8,000 roots at $35, and about $10 for 

 fertilizers. The crop is ready to cut when the leaves 

 can be readily detached by passing the hand down the 

 stems and when the base of the stalks. begins to turn 

 brown. In France the first crop is cut from June to 

 July, and the second from September to October. See 

 chapter on culture, in different countries, in Report 7, 

 Fiber Investigations series, published by the United 

 States Department of Agriculture. 



Yield. — The yield per acre of green stalks with 

 leaves has been placed at 8 to 10 tons, or say 25 tons 

 for two cuttings under the most favorable circum- 

 stances. A calculation based on the above figures 

 places the yield of dry fiber per acre at about 1,000 

 pounds for two annual cuttings, provided that the 

 crop has been properly grown. Mr. Charles Riviere 

 (director of the botanic garden at Algiers) states that 

 1,000 kilograms (2,200 pounds) of stalks and leaves 

 will yield 520 kilograms (1,144 pounds) of stripped 

 stalks; the 520 kilograms of stripped stalks will give 



104 kilograms (228.8 pounds) of dry stalks, and these will yield 20.8 kilograms (45.7 

 pounds) of decorticated product (a little less than 20 per cent), and this weight will 

 give 11.2 kilograms (24.6 pounds) of degummed filasse. "This is a yield which I have 

 proven in all my experiments " (De Landtsheer). This means that a long ton of green 

 ramie stalks with leaves will yield 46£ pounds of decorticated fiber, which will give 

 25 pounds of degummed fiber, the figures forming a ready basis of calculation when 

 the total weight of an acre of stalks is known. 



Extraction of the Fiber.— There are but three ways in which the fiber of China 

 grass and ramie may be extracted: By hand stripping, as practiced in China; by 

 boiling the stalks in water or solutions, which also requires a certain amount of hand 

 manipulation; and by machinery. The stripping by hand can only be made to pay 

 where wages are down to the level of those paid in China, and almost the same may 

 be said of boiling processes, on account of the after handling necessary to separate 

 trash from fiber when the bark separation has been accomplished. As far as the 

 Department has knowledge of new machines, this phase of the ramie question is still 



Fig 



—Clusters of flower ra- 

 cemes of ramie. 



