RAMIE FIBER PRODUCTION 6 



pine Islands was available for export. Although ramie is very 

 widely distributed in China, it is grown only in small patches and 

 not as a field crop. The most productive areas are provinces along 

 the Yangtze Kiver, and Hankow and Kiukiang are the most impor- 

 tant exporting centers, although much of the fiber from the interior 

 must pass through the coastal ports Shanghai, Tientsin, or Canton. 

 In Japan it is grown only to a limited extent. 



Early attempts to cultivate ramie in Kussia were unsuccessful. 

 A report 3 of recent attempts shows that out of 4,500 hectares (11,119 

 acres) of ramie started in 1929, only 1,633 hectares (4,035 acres) 

 remained in 1939, mostly in western Georgia, Union of Soviet Social- 

 ist Republics. This represents plantings on 150 collective farms and 

 a small area on noncollective farms. It has been tried experimentally 

 in southern Europe, particularly in France, and more recently in 

 Italy. It was cultivated in France between 1888 and 1894 to supply 

 material for ramie cleaning-machine trials conducted by the French 

 Government. However none of the machines were regarded as 

 satisfactory at that time. 



In Africa ramie has been widely grown experimentally. How- 

 ever, the only experiments of any size are believed to be one of 36 

 acres reported in Tanganyika Territory 4 in 1937 and one of about 

 40 hectares (99 acres) reported in Libya 5 in 1939. 



In India, ramie grows wild in some regions. Attempts to cultivate 

 the crop have not proved long lasting. The British Indian Govern- 

 ment offered, as early as 1869, a prize of £5,000 for a machine to 

 decorticate ramie. Trials were held in 1872 and in 1879, but the \ 

 results were failures and the prize offer was later withdrawn. In 

 recent years there has been no ramie fiber exported from India, and 

 apparently there are only small areas cultivated in Bengal and Assam 

 for domestic use by the natives. 



About 1855, ramie was first introduced into the United States, and 

 shortly thereafter it found its way into a number of Central American 

 countries. A number of attempts have been made to start a ramie 

 industry in the United States, Central America, and South America. 

 Although the plant grows well in many sections of the Western Hem- 

 isphere, no industry has developed, probably because the machine 

 preparation did not prove successful. 



In the United States experiments have been conducted along the 

 South Atlantic coast, the Gulf of Mexico coast, and in California 

 by individuals, by State agricultural experiment stations (fig. 1), 

 and by the United States Department of Agriculture. These ex- 

 periments have proved the adaptability of the crop to certain re- 

 gions and also have shown the soil relations necessary for successful 

 culture. The most extensive plantings have been made by companies 

 interested in testing new machines and methods of preparation. 

 Many of the southern State experiment stations have maintained 

 small plots of ramie for many years for observational purposes and 

 as a source of propagating stock for people interested in testing 

 the plant on a larger scale. 



3 ZAITSEV, V. I. [NEW PLANTS AT THE ALL-UNION EXHIBITION (SOVIET RAMIE).] Soviet 



Subtropics 9 : 21-24. 1939. [In Russian. English summary, pp. 62-63.] 



4 Eyre, J. C. notes on trials of ramie in Tanganyika territory. East African Agr. 

 Jour. 3 : 176-179. 1937. 



5 Scavone, Giuseppe, possibilita e convenienza della coltivazione della ramia. 

 Ital. Agr. 76 : [327]-336, illus. 1939. 



