May 1907.] 



273 



jFibres. 



RHEA OR RAMIE IN TIRHUT. 



(Boehmeria nivea, Hook. & Arn.) 



In the Agricultural Ledger, 1898, No. 15, pp. 37—46, Sir G. Watt, in dealing 

 with the cultivation of Rhea or Ramie in Bengal, indicated the extent to which it 

 was then actually grown in that province. He remarked particularly the suitability 

 of the plant to the north-eastern districts of Rungpur, Jalpaiguri and the Duars, 

 and indicated the possibility of an extension of its cultivation westward to Tirhut, 

 though at the same time he poiuted out that how far this extension was really 

 possible was for the future to show. 



Considerable interest, therefore, attaches to the experience of an association 

 formed in Calcutta in 1900 for the purpose of putting on the market Ramie fibre in a 

 commercial form. This association, the Bengal Rhea Syndicate, entered into an 

 agreement with various plauters in the district of Durbungah, in Tirhut, under 

 which the growers were to put a definite area under Ratnie, and provide Rhea stalks, 

 the syndicate supplying the necessary machines to produce from these the commercial 

 fibre. It has long been known that there is no serious difficulty attending the 

 cultivation of Ramie, provided the soil is suitable and the climatic conditions are at 

 all favourable. As has already been pointed out (Kew Bulletin, 1888, p. 293), the chief 

 difficulty is as regards the decortication of the Ramie stalks. The experience in 

 Tirhut is therefore of further interest as throwing light on such practical advances 

 as may have been made in this direction. 



That the plant could be successfully grown iu Tirhut on an experimental 

 scale was already known ; various plauters in Tirhut had demonstrated this in plots 

 containing plants raised from roots supplied from the Royal Botanic Garden at 

 Calcutta, and to a smaller extent from the Botanic Garden at Saharanpur. But what 

 Sir G. Watt had in view, and what it was desirable to test was whether, if the 

 difficulties attending decortication were overcome, the cultivation of the plant in 

 Tirhut was likely to prove remunerative commercially. The original contracts 

 entered into by the syndicate in question were nine in number ; the area involved 

 amounted to 3,700 acres. Actually, however, owing to difficulties connected with soil 

 and rainfall, operations had to be restricted to seven concerns with an aggregate area 

 of 3,100 acres, and of the suitable available land the amount actually under Ramie in 

 February, 1906, was 1,950 acres. The results of these operations, which have now 

 extended over several years, are calculated to throw some light on both questions. 



These results have been made generally available by the publication in the 

 "Journal d' Agriculture Tropicale" for June 30th, 1906, of the French test of an account 

 of the operations, which is there stated to have been supplied on February 10, 1906, to 

 the Director of Agriculture, Bengal, by Mr. J. Karpeles the managing director of the 

 Bengal Rhea Syndicate. The original agreement entered into by the syndicate with 

 the planters in Durbungah stipulated that the growers were to produce the Ramie 

 stalks, while the syndicate were to supply the machines for preparing the commercial 

 fibre. The fact that the firm in Calcutta to which the Syndicate's managing director 

 belongs acted as agents in Iudia for the machine especially devised by Mr. Faure for 

 dealing with Ramie, adds further to the interest of the account. 



In the " Queensland Agricultural Journal" for November, 1906, (p. 247,) is given 

 a translation of the report referred to, which is here reprinted. Its value is consider- 

 able owing to the fairness with which the results obtained and the difficulties 

 encountered by the Bengal Rhea Syndicate have been stated. But, as pointed out 

 in the ' Queensland Agricultural Journal,' it possesses another interest— it gives for 

 the first time, so far at least as India is concerned, an account of operations on a 

 scale sufficiently extensive to justify the formation of reliable estimates for a 

 plantation ;— 



