72 
Supplement to the ^'Tropica' Agriculturist." |July 1, 1989. 
hold it in high esteem and it fetches high prices. 
Vety small quantities compared with the vast crops 
grown, unfortunately, have yet found their way 
out of China. We have based our calculations on 
the price of raw material at i'30 per ton, and at 
this price I can show a paying industry competing 
V7ith flax, but 1 am promised contracts as low as 
£20 per ton ; this will open up a vast field and 
enable us to compete witli cotton- India produces 
Vast quantities in a wild state ; these will have to 
be brought under cultivation. Dr. Morris, of Kew, 
recommends ramie to the planters who cannot 
make sugar pay. It would be a boon to our West 
India Colonies, The Australian Colonies are 
growing ramie; Queensland and New South ""^ales 
have sent us splendid quality. The United States 
Government are recommending it to their farmers, 
and the Government has voted $145,000 to the 
establishment of experimental plantations. Mexico, 
it appears from a Consular report, shnws 145 per 
cent profit in ramie-growing. From South 
America I have splendid samples ; as many as four 
crops in the year are cut, and i am promised 
regular supplies at a price which will put ramie 
on the market as a competitor to cotton. There 
is a vast field in Egypt and Soudau. The Govern- 
ment of Natal is recommending ramie-growing. 
Plantations are already started iu Bor/ieo, Ceylon, 
Straits Settlements, Formosa, Java, and the Malay 
Peninsula ; Corea produces splendid ramie, and the 
Japanese are turning their attention to ramie- 
growing. In short, I hear from all quarters of 
the globe of the great advance in ramie-g rawing, 
and I have not the slightest doubt it will prove a 
strong rival to cotton. To our Colonies 1 would 
suggest ramie-growing, and, by the use of oar 
decorticators, ribbons could be prepared whilst iu 
a green state, for the ungumming process and 
filasse should be prepared on the plantation. It 
is a simple operation and the plant would not be 
expensive. The filasse so produced would be far 
superior to that produced from the dried ribbons, 
and in addition there would be a great saving in 
freight. The waste products, viz., the leaves and 
lateral shoots, would produce an invaluable pulp for 
high-class paper making and command a high|price. 
Decortication- — In China this is accomplished by 
hand labour. The operator strips the ribbons from 
the stem and scrapes the fibre, removing the pelicule 
or brown bark and much of the pectose gummy 
matter whilst in a green state. The natives of 
India merely strip the plants and make no attempt 
to clean them. These rhea ribbons command a 
much lower price than the Chinese cleaned strips. 
Our decorticator cleans the ribbons similarly, but 
leaves them in a more perfect condition than 
those produced by Chinese hand labour, removing 
considerably more of the pectose in its fluid state. 
Preparation. —The next difficulty is dressing the 
fibre ready for the spinner. Hitherto the ex- 
pensive process of preparing on silk dressing 
machinery has stood in the way, and when we 
■ can turn out an article absolutely without waste 
beyond the shorts or noils which exist in the fibre, 
at a cost of o le-halfpenny, which hitherto has cost 
. 9d,, "we can claim success and considerable advance. 
Spinnin//. — This is now a simple process- Our 
wet spinning frames produce an even yarn, gasiiig 
.is no longer necessary, and the strength and 
, lustre of the fibre is materially advanced by its 
Abolishment, 
Market. — On account of its great strength and 
lustre it is especially in demand for lace, duck, 
khaki, sail cloth, fishing-lines, braiding, tapestry, 
and all purposes where special strength or lustre is 
of advantage. It mixes with and fortifies weak 
wools. And as the price of the raw material is 
lessened, so in proportion will the demand increase. 
Our latest is milo-thread. 
We shall be pleased to send you samples. For 
yacht-sails it has achieved a great success. The 
Defender's sails were ramie. The Cona, one of the 
most successful PJriglish yachts, carried ramie sails 
made by our process, as the fibre does not rot 
in water it i* particularly applicable to fishing 
nets, sails, and rigging, and its great strength 
commends it further for these purposes. 
D. EDWARDS-RADCLYFFE, 
Hythe End Mill, Staines, Middlesex. 
THE WHIP TREE, 
This is the common local name of the tree botani- 
cally known as Casuarina e (uisetifolia — one of the 
Conifera or cone-bdaring traes, so uncommoa in the 
tropics, eKcepl in the nigher elevations. In the 
Flora of Ceylon the wood is described as " very 
hard, ftbrou<, strong and brownish-red.'' 
Mr. J. W. Fawcett, member of the English 
Arborieultural Society, in his description of the 
Timber Trees nf Queensland, tells us that the 
generic name, Casuarina, was given by Lin use us 
on account of the pendent branchlets, resembling 
the feathers of the bird known as the cassowary 
All the Casuarinas, he says, are splendid tre.'S for 
planting, They are very rapid growers, and 
make good breakwinds, copses or shelter plan- 
tations, and the saplings are always u«eful for 
many other purposes besides the speedy supply of 
excellent fuel which they give. Mr. Fawcett thus 
makes special reference to the whip tree in his 
descriptive list: — • 
Botunical Description. — The Horsetail oak is a 
lofty tree of moderataly large size, attaining a 
height of from 50 to as much as, 50 feet, with a 
diameter varying from 12 to 30 in. 
Bark. — The bark is rough. 
Branches, — The branches, which give it a very 
peculiar appearance, are long, slender, and wiry ; 
the principal ones are spreading or ascending, the 
smaller ones generally pendulous or drooping. 
They are of a greyish-gresn colour, glabrous or 
tomentose when young, with very small scale-like 
sheaths instead of leaves. 
Leaves. — The leaves are sheath-teeth, arranged 
in whorls, from 6 to 8, usually 7 in number, and 
are very short and acute. 
Flowers. — The flowers are dioecious — -that is 
they have neither calyx nor corolla, the stameni 
with the pis tlis being on separate flowers- The 
male flowers have only one stamen, and are in 
spikes about three-quarters of an inch in length, 
and terminate in a slender deciduous branchlet. 
The fern ile flowers possess a one-celled ovary, and 
are arranged in dense heads. 
Fruit. — The fruit consists of hardened bracts 
collected in a strobilus, or compact cone, about 
halt-an-inch in diameter, of a globular shape, each 
enclosing a small shining or velvety winged nut. 
Vernacular and Botanical Names — The 
Horsetail Oak (so-called from the likeness of its 
long pendulous branchlets to the long hairs of a 
