HEMP AND JUTE MACHINERY. 349 



We have considered that these varied products, or grades of prod- 

 uct, differ only in the degree to which the elimination of the gum and 

 waste matters have been carried, and that the proportion of gum, cel- 

 lular matter, and epidermis is the only consideration. In point of fact, 

 the product of many machines which otherwise might be called u good 

 fiber" has been so filled with fragments of the woody portion of the 

 stalks, or so "chewed up' 1 by harsh treatment, or, finally, so snarled 

 and tangled in the delivery that it has had little value for any purpose. 

 The product should be delivered straight, unsnarled and untangled, 

 free from chips, and without breaks, cuts, or bruises, whether in the 

 form of stripped bark or semicleaned fiber, and its value will be deter- 

 mined by the percentage of pure fiber it contains. It may be fairly 

 assumed, then, that the nearer a machine approaches in its product the 

 ramie of commerce, Chinese hand-cleaned fiber, the higher the price of 

 its product and the more desirable the device producing it as an eco- 

 nomic agricultural implement. 



For an account of the machines that have been officially tested by 

 the United States Government, see appendices to Eeport No. 7, Fiber 

 Investigations Series of the United States Department of Agriculture. 

 See also the work of Felicien Michotte, Paris, in which the principal 

 French and American inventions are described, as well as the chapter 

 on French machines in Eeport No, 1, Fiber Investigations Series of this 

 Department. Since the publication of Eeport No. 7 several new Amer- 

 ican and foreign machines have appeared, but as these have not been 

 tested by the Governmentsof France, Great Britain, the United States, 

 or other countries no authoritative statements can be made concerning 

 them. 



HEMP AND JUTE MACHINERY. 



These machines may be classed together, as a successful bast-fiber 

 machine might with slight modification be made to extract either fiber. 

 It has been shown also, in ramie-machine trials, that an unsuccessful 

 ramie machine may prove a fair jute machine, and two machines the 

 Department has tested have worked on the three fibers, hemp, jute, 

 and ramie. 



It is claimed that nearly 300 patents have been issued in the United 

 States for machines for breaking hemp, many of which have proved 

 absolute failures, while none of them filled the requirements of an 

 economically successful hemp-cleaning device, the Kentucky hemp 

 grower of to-day relying upon the rude and clumsy five-slatted hand 

 brake of his grandfather's time, a device similar in all respects to that 

 used for the same purpose at the present day by the hemp farmers of 

 Brittany. The French brake is only a slight advance upon that used 

 in this country, being smaller, composed of both wood and metal, and 

 having seven instead of five slats. While a less clumsy affair than 

 the American device, a French workman can not clean with it more 



