380 THE TEOPIOAL AGRICULTUEIST. [Dec. 1, 1899. 
sent to England, and it3 merits instantly reco;^nised 
by British manufacturers. 
And so the subjoot weut on gathering interest and 
enquiry until the Government of India — recognising 
the great obst?^ole to expeditious cleaning in their 
notification of January 1870 — offered a prize of 5,000 
for the production of a machine that should clean the 
fibre at a cost of £15 per ton, including all process 
of cleaning, wear and tear of machinery, and provided 
the cleaned prepared fibre fetched £50 per ton in the 
London marked. Notwithstanding this liberal prize, 
which was again renev/ed iu 1&77 in the shape of 
R50,000, both- trials were a failure, and no machine 
came up to Government conditions. 
Since then two or three score of patent have been 
taken, and more than a dozen distinct processes in- 
vented, all claiming to have solved difficulty. Among 
the most recent, is the Ferguson process — the Mac- 
donald-Boile — the Eyssen — and, lastly, Mr. Dear has 
tnrnec up with yet another machine of Automatic 
pretensions. According to the Financial Neips. Mr. 
Ferguson has spent £30,C0^ on his process, and now 
merely wants £500,00(1 to place it on a commercial 
footing: it is possible Mr. Ferguson will be found 
wanting that some of money for some time to come 
yet. 
Some time ago Mr. J.R.Boyle wrote from the Im- 
perial Institute saying one firm v/ould purchase to 
One thousand tons at .£12 per ton in London with the 
fibre in its own integument. Mr. Hoyle may rest as- 
sured that " one firm " is by no means alone iu desir- 
ing 1,000 tons of rhea fibre at £12 a ton in London ; 
seeing the eminently handsome difference between 
£Vi and the price of the finished article and taldng 
full note of the fact that at least half the cleaning 
has to be done in India. 
Notwithstanding the many failures, it may be con- 
fidently predicted the time is not far distant when 
all difficulties of manufacture will be a than of the 
past. The subject is now become one of very keen 
interest to a greatly increasing number iu widely 
divided places, and without a doubt it is understood 
a splendid fortune awaits the first inventor of a really 
effective and reasonably priced process for dealing 
with rhea. A fibre acknowledged oq all hands to be 
one of the finest if not in the language of Rox- 
burgh, the finest of vegetable fibres, must come to 
the front, and assert, its merits and if this should 
be so — and there is not the shadow of a doubt about 
it — India should not be behind iu the matter. When 
all difficulties of manufacture have passed away, it 
will be solely a question of quantity, production, iu 
short a planter's question. 
PBACl'lCAL CULTURE OF RHEA. 
- At the every outset I must revert to the types and 
emphasise the paramouiit importance of clearly under- 
standing which is which. Manifold errors and failures 
will be avoided in ludia by uuderstandiug clearly 
there are two types, which for cultural purposes are 
widely distinct in their climatic demands. 
I note rhea seed tiguies in the admirable catalogue 
of the Himalayan seed stores: it is Italian-grown, 
and the ''true rhea" so stated. But I must take 
leave to point out this Italian-grown seed is undoubted- 
ly the produce of L'oehmerianivea, v?hich is the true 
temperate China plant, from which so-called China 
grass is made, and for cultural purposes wholly dis- 
tinct from Roxburgh's type, na,meA Hochmeria lenacin- 
iima nnA which is the Bamatra plant, and no doubt 
identical with the tropical form subsequently found 
at Rungpore in Bengal and Assam ;>nd doubtless the 
rhea being exten.sively grown in the Island of Ceylon, 
is the tropical type , and thei'efore not JJoeltmena nivea, 
but Roxbuigh's JJuchmeria tenacisnuna, which is the 
vigorous, rapid growing, very long fibre type, in short 
tha tropical type as distinguished from the temperate 
or at all events sub-tropical type. 
When this point is understood an enormous amount of 
confusion and prospective failure will disappear. To, 
plant this the true China type iu such places as Assam 
lor iubltiiicv, id thy beat way to £i\il ; in point of fact it 
is on record that a nilmber of Assam planters have 
tried rhea culture and failed ; at all events abandoned 
the culture. I have not seen it stated wluch type 
was used or exactly why the culture was abaudoned, 
but if lioehmeria nivea was used, then we need seek 
no further for the why of the failure. 
This is a case in which there is not much in a name 
but a very great deal in clearly distinguishing between 
the tropical and temperate type of practicallj' the 
same thing, whether it he Uoehuuria nivea or Boekemeria 
tenacissiiua ; they are both first class, identical, fibre- 
yielding plants, but amenable to totally differing cli- 
matic conditions. 
There is very little doubt that Ilocluieria nivea 
would flourish well in sub-montane tracts along the 
foot of the Himalayas and up to 3,000 feet elevation 
iu these places there is no poasiblity of swamping, 
drainage i3 good, and it would be an inexpensive 
matter to lay on irrigation if desiiable from some of 
the many water ravines desending from higher eleva- 
tions. There is this additional advantage, Bochmcria 
wj'rea is an abundant seeder, and could be so produced 
in any quantity for those trying Bochvieria 'nivta. Dr. 
MacGowan, on the Chines- method, dating fi-om time 
immemorial, may be briefly stated with advHntage. 
Dr. MacGown says : " The seed is sown in May. " 
[This would be a bad month in India ; I would sug- 
gest the beginning of the monsoon or March as better 
for this country.] "Loose dry soil is to be 
selected, the ground to be well ploughed, mauured, 
and broken up finely. Then divided into beds, eight 
yards by one yard wide ; then rsked levelled and 
watered down and left for the night. On the morrow 
the beds are to be loosened up, raked and finned down 
again ; then two or three tea-spoonfuls of seed is 
mixed in a bowl of earth and sown broadcast over 
the beds and raked in subsequently a frame work 
is made, and as soon as the seed commences to ger- 
minate, and come through the soil, the young plants 
are protected from the hot sun — of June and July 
— by mats. The matting must be kept moist by day 
and taken off at night for the young plants to receive 
the dew of heaven." [A consideration of the Indian 
climate in the submontane districts during May, and 
up to the burst of the monsoon suggests a different 
time for sowing to that of China namely, just before 
the burst of the monsoon when the soil is hot and 
the ensuing rains create a rapid germinating medium 
otherwise February should be selected.] "The beds 
must be constantly weeded. 'When plants are three 
inches high they should be taken up and transplanted 
four inches apart. In the following May they are 
to be taken up and planted half a yard apart." [This 
will never do for India, the transplanting in May ; 
it would be better to do this in March, and possibly 
February would be still better.] Then follows ins- 
tructions to water every few days for the first decade 
and at ten days intervals; subsequently in the second 
year, the plants will be mature for cutting. Regard- 
ing manures the doctor says : — "Never use swine's 
dung as it is 'saltish' and hurtful to the Ma.' 
Further :— "In many cases fresh earth, pulver- 
ised bricks, ashes, etc., are used as manures." He 
also mentions a heavy mulch to protect the young 
plants from the cold of winter— this however would 
be of less moment iu India than China. 
Ten years is given as the age of unprofitableness, 
but even at that age it is remarked the plants may 
be taken up and planted forty inches apart in will 
prepared and heavily manured land. 
Elsewhere Dr. Jlacgowan remarks the plant "is 
found at the base of hills and dry places. " 
The first cutting takes place in June and the last 
and of September or October. The stems grow seven 
or eight feet high and give three crops a year, "It 
not unfrequently happens that the crop is in some 
places remarkably small, and some other times the 
produce is very great without assiguable cause. " 
This remark should be duly noted ; we can scarcely 
suppose in the case of China it would be climate, 
but more probably some peculiarity of soil ; however 
this may be, it is to be noted the rhea plant is amea- 
