348 USEFUL FIBER PLANTS OF THE WORLD. 



away with the laborious and costly operation of hand pulling. Several 

 machines have been invented in the latter classes, but there is room 

 for improvement in flax thrashers, and the flax-pulling machines are 

 still in the experimental stage (see Annual Report, United States 

 Department of Agriculture, 1893, p. 578, and Report 4, Fiber Investi- 

 gations Series, Department of Agriculture, pp. 29, 31). 



RAMIE DECORTICATION. 



It is not important in the limits of this paper to record here the con- 

 secutive history of ramie-machine invention in America, particularly as 

 it would necessitate describing almost a score of machines that, one 

 after another, were brought to the attention of the public for a time, 

 only to be practically abandoned when it was proved they were unable 

 to fulfill the claims of their inventors. Since 1807 the persevering 

 effort to produce a satisfactory machine has naturally resulted in a 

 gradual improvement in mechanical construction and substantial pro- 

 gress has been made, though at this date (189G) the question has not 

 been practically settled. Ramie machines may be divided into two 

 classes — (1) delignators, or simple bark strippers, and (2) decorticators, 

 which not only remove the bark but make some pretense of removing 

 the outer pellicle or epidermis and the layer of cellular matter cover- 

 ing the fiber layer proper. The bark strippers produce the fiber in the 

 form of flat ribbons, only the wood of the stalk being eliminated, and 

 they are usually constructed with some form of knife or knives, with 

 which the stalks are split before being subjected to the action of the 

 breakers and beaters. The decorticators usually first crush the stalk 

 by means of metal rollers, presenting the flattened mass to the action 

 of the breaking or beating devices, and frequently there is a system of 

 mechanisms for combing the fiber before it is finally delivered to the 

 aprons. The product of the delignators is always the same, a flat ribbon 

 of bark whether the dry or green systems of decortication have been 

 employed. The product of the decorticators, on the other hand, is 

 almost as variable as the machines which turn out the fiber. In some 

 of the poorer machines this product is little more than a mangled strip 

 of bark, neither a delignated ribbon nor decorticated fiber, but some- 

 thing more fit for the trash heap. In the best of them, individual fila- 

 ments, by the green system, somewhat resemble China grass, though 

 darker and less clean, while by the dry system the fiber is already 

 soft enough to spin into coarse cordage without further manipulation. 

 Between these two extremes every quality of "ribbon" is represented. 

 Taking China grass, or commercial ramie, as the highest form of the 

 fiber, since it is degummed with a loss in weight of only 15 to 30 per 

 cent, it will readily be seen that the value of the machine-cleaned rib- 

 bons to the manufacturers must be in exact ratio to the degree to which 

 the cleaning and freeing from gum have been carried. 



