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BLOCKINGS GARDEN MANUAL. 



will grow, its cultivation could be extended indefinitely 

 in a short time. 



Great improvements have recently been made in the 

 Southern American States in the machinery for prepar- 

 ing the fibre, by which the plant maybe cleaned on the 

 field, the refuse being left for manure. The fibre is 

 then dried, becoming comparatively pure, white, and 

 silky, divested entirely of gum, and prepared for baling 

 and for spinning. With the improved machinery, one 

 laborer can clean the product of ten acres, and one acre 

 will yield at least two tons, making a total of twenty 

 tons to the hand. The fibre is estimated to be worth 

 ,£40 per ton. Some cultivators of Alameda got Gilbert 

 Lyman to report upon an improved machine. He 

 reports as follows : — " I found Lefranc's machine at 

 work on the stalks of ramie raised in Louisiana. It 

 turns out 600 lbs. of clean fibre per day — doing its 

 work with ease and perfection ; I send you samples. 

 This is an improvement on the first machine by this 

 maker, and it costs more. The price is §-500, if boxed 

 for shipment. It has made a revival of interest among 

 planters, and there will be a large increase of produc- 

 tion. I find that moist land is preferred, where the 

 ramie yields three cuttings a year. I have seen several 

 fields that have been cropped the third year, and they 

 expect it to bear many years without replanting. It 

 seems to give less trouble than cotton. 



In Louisiana some of the planters are replacing the 

 sugar-cane with ramie, which does not require replant- 

 ing, demands comparatively little labor in cultivation, 

 and entails no great expense for machinery to prepare 

 it for market. So far as known, it has no insect ene- 

 mies ; its fibre is less bulky and more easily transported 

 than cotton, and it is sure of a ready sale at remunera- 

 tive prices. The fibre, which forms its commercial 

 product, is the inner bark of the stem, and, when ex- 

 posed to view by separation from the husk, presents a 

 brilliant, pearl-white lustre, This fibre is longer and 



