\6y 



lapful '', and that was the cause of his failure. But the author has 

 already explained that the Chinaman had no machinery, nor any- 

 thing that could be called a process, while there was as far as any- 

 one can see as much of a market for him as for the Chinaman, so 

 that this explanation is no more satisfactory than the previous one. 



The question of where the Ramie can be grown is next discussed, 

 and a few (very few) of the countries where it has been successfully 

 grown are mentioned. " In the Straits Settlements, the comment 

 was made that there seemed little chance of establishing its cultiva- 

 tion unless the Government first showed that the experiment was 

 likely to succeed by cultivating a patch of an acre or thereabout". 

 (The author does not seem to be aware of how much has been done 

 in experimental cultivation in the Straits Settlements, or indeed 

 elsewhere,) f< It is stated to be indigenous to Singapore " (which it 

 certainly is not) etc. 



After giving the outturns from various experimental patches and 

 showing the discrepancies in them and the causes of them, he; says 

 that speaking generally the yield of clean strips (ribbons) ,vould 

 approximate i ton per acre, at all events if care is taken and the 

 plant properly cultivated over half a ton should easily be obtained 

 in the course of a year. 



"But one thing is clear (he says) if the fibrous strips can be pro- 

 duced by the cultivator at £20 a ton without loss he will not have 

 any difficulty in earning a dividend on his outlay but not through 

 sales at public auction for once again stress has to be laid upon the 

 fact that the crops will be machine not hand produced and will 

 resemble nothing in the market. The planter's production will in 

 fact at all events until the commercial use of ramie fabrics has be- 

 come more general be unsaleable except to the owner of the pro- 

 cess by which the strips will be degummed and who will alone be 

 in a position to spin or dispose of the filasse. So here we have a 

 planter producing a substance which we will assume it would pay 

 him to grow but with a one man market. The conclusion is obvious 

 the cultivator and the manufacture r must for all practical purposes 

 be one, — the agreement being that what one produces the other will 

 take". 



The characteristics of the fibre and its various uses are discussed, 

 and in conclusion the author suggests that the time has come for 

 further action on the part of the Government of India. Germany he 

 says in her African Colonies, Belgium in the Congo and Holland in 

 Java are fostering the cultivation of the plant and the production of 

 a raw material which will * * * contain a fibre which manufacturers 

 are prepared to buy,'' England and her Colonies lag behind. His 

 suggestion is that the Government should guarantee to the manu- 

 facturer, (1) interest on the capital spent in the erection ol a planl 

 capable of treating a certain amount of fibre a year, (2) to give the 

 goods of the manufacturer the preference if he can produce a thread 

 yarn or other material compared with other samples used by them, 

 and manufactured from other than Indian products, and (3) to guar- 

 antee interest on the manufacturer's present products, if he will 



