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treatment. The first crop of green stems, ready for mechanical 

 treatment, can be gathered about eight months after planting the 

 roots ; the crops then follow in quick succession, the interval between 

 the crops being about eight weeks. It is estimated that in a well- 

 regulated plantation under proper conditions ij tons of a clean 

 quality of fibre may be obtained annually from each acre of land. 



Ramie possesses such remarkable and exceptional qualities that it 

 is considered a first-class textile. Its staple is long. It is supple, and 

 has a silky gloss. It does not rot, which alone is a matter of great 

 importance. It has highly absorptive properties, and has proved 

 itself stronger than flax, hemp, jute, cotton, and such like, while as 

 regards price it could to-day be produced and brought to market to 

 compete advantageously with flax, hemp, and cotton. 



Ramie is employed in a great variety of textiles, such as domestic 

 napery, damask, ladies' dress goods, underclothing, lace, upholstery 

 goods, fishing nets, sailcloths, driving belts, canvas, ropes, twine, 

 surgical bandages, lint, and incandescent gas mantles. 



Owing partly to the drawback that, until comparatively recently, 

 effective machinery was not available for the proper extraction of the 

 fibre, the practice, up to a few years ago, was to use hand cleaned 

 China Ramie, or to ship to Europe for treatment dried Ramie canes, 

 or crude bark with the pellicle still adhering. This latter course has 

 always proved a fatal error, and has formed the overwhelming difficulty 

 in the manufacture of Ramie in Europe, as under the most careful 

 handling imaginable the canes and crude ribbons must, and do, arrive 

 in a dry, brittle, and mutilated condition, with the gum necessarily so 

 hardened that the natural difficulties attending the decortication, 

 degumming, and combing processes are immensely increased ; the 

 result to the manufacturer — apart from the money absolutely wasted 

 on the freight of merely useless refuse in the shape of cane wood, etc. — 

 being a less valuable fibre at an unnecessarily high price. 



With the gradual accumulation of experience the difficulties in the 

 preparation of the fibre have been overcome. Important factors in the 

 obtaining of this have been the introduction of the improved Decorti- 

 cating Machine invented by Pierre Paulin Faure, of Limoges, and the 

 additional process of cleaning and opening the fibre. With these 

 machines the canes are treated at the plantation while still in a green 

 state. Before fermentation and subsequent hardening of the gum set 

 in, the gum is eliminated mechanically from the decorticated fibre, 

 with the result that a soft fibre of good length and colour can be 

 produced at a moderate cost. In this way only can the best results be 

 obtained. In China, where the fibre is still extracted by hand labour, 

 one Chinaman and his family can turn out only 4 to 5 lbs. of dry fibre 

 per day of ten hours, whereas one Faure machine of the latest pattern 

 can produce 800 lbs. of dry fibre per day of twenty-four hours — working 

 three shifts of eight hours each — or, say, 100 tons per machine per 

 annum. 



