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one of experiment. The creasing, however, is to be got over by mix- 

 ture with wool, or by the use of very thick cotton warps, and fabrics 

 of a new kind have been manufacfured on a small scale, and have found 

 a ready sale. 



There is also sufficient evidence that at prices of raw material per- 

 manently lowered, there would be a larger field for the use of ramie as 

 a substitute for long-stapled wool. Even if its use for ladies' dresses 

 were not again resumed, there are hangings, carriage linings, carpets, 

 and other manufactures for which the suitability of ramie has been 

 established, and for which its application continues to engage the at- 

 tention of some of our most eminent manufacturers. There are several 

 circumstances favouring the use of ramie in this line rather than in 

 competition with flax. The material competed with is higher priced 

 than flax, the better class of wool varying from £130 to £280 per ton, 

 whilst those which in their raw state are lower priced contain such a 

 proportion of dirt that the price for the really available fibre is, here 

 also, in reality, not much lower. Thus the technical difficulties in the 

 way of spinning and weaving ramie on worsted machinery have been 

 much better overcome than similar difficulties encountered in using it 

 as a substitute for flax. There is also the circumstance that the ramie 

 combing waste, or noils, has been found very suitable for mixture in 

 bulk with rough kind of wool, and capable of being used fur blankets, 

 as also, possibly, for giving strength to shoddy, and for a variety of 

 other rough purposes. 



Ramie with Silk. — A great number of experiments have been tried 

 with regard to its suitability for being used as a substitute for silk, or 

 even as an admixture with it. The glossiness of the finely-prepared 

 ramie naturalty suggested this use. Both in England and in Lyons the 

 subject has been taken up repeatedly ; and though, by the application 

 of ramie, it is possible to imitate to a certain extent the effects of silk 

 in certain mixed fabrics, the special use of ramie for this object has 

 never acquired any real footing, apart from the fabrics relying on very 

 similar effects which have been prepared from it on worsted machinery, 

 and already noticed. As regards mixture with silk also, ramie has a 

 formidable rival in the much cheaper jute, now largely used for this 

 purpose. 



Ramie compared with Flax and Hemp. — In the cases in which ramie is 

 used as a substitute for flax, wool, and silk, it is made to compete with 

 high-class fabrics, for which it must be rendered fit by means of a com- 

 plicated manipulation, and it is put essentially to a new use different 

 from those to which it is applied in the countries of the original growth, 

 such as China and the East Indies, because the fine grass-cloth fabrics 

 produced in China, and woven not from ramie yarn but from untwisted 

 bundles of fibres joined end to end, either by the gum naturally con- 

 tained in the fibre or by a special kind of knot, cannot be compared 

 with any fabrics produced in this country. On the other hand, the 

 use of ramie for purposes for which hemp is used in this country is 

 generally practised in Assam, in parts of Bengal, and in the East In- 

 dian Archipelago. It is used for nets, fishing lines, and other pur- 

 poses for which strength, lightness, and power of resisting water are 

 essential. 



