3^8 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST 
[November i, 1890- 
3B— ng ■ a m 'l.y..— '"'!' - '■ 
FIBROUS PLANTS AND THEIR 
TREATMENT. 
A factory has been established in High Street, Lam- 
beth, under the supervision of Mr. Taylor Burrows, 
late of Lisle, for the treatment of various fibrous 
plants. Samples of these plants of every species can 
now be submitted for oarefuUy-supervised trial, aud 
if the present machines or processes prove unsuitable 
in some little detail or other, the defect will be dis- 
covered and remedied. In like manner advice will 
be given as to the best machines and methods of 
treating fibrous plants, and the opportunity will be 
afforded of studying the various processes of production, 
and of acquiring a knowledge of the most scientific 
methods of preparing fibres. In fact the present 
enterprise promises to develop into an important public 
technical school, for it is proposed to establish branches 
in textile manufacturing and cogtiate centres. From 
a still wider point of view the fibre factory may be 
regarded as an exhibition and a permanent institution 
for perfecting machinery and processes relating t j tlie 
treatment of fibre-bearing plants of every description. 
The various processes to be carried at the model fibre 
factory comprise the rapid retting and ungumming 
of fibrous plants ; automatic breaking, snctching, com- 
bing, and hackling; spinning into simple or mixed 
yarns; cottonising and woollenising fibres to imitate 
fine cotton or wool, suitable for the manufacture of 
various mixed and cheap fabrics as well as for fine 
and costly goods ; bleaching and dyeing the same, and 
the rapid drying of fibres by means of cold air. The 
factory consists of a spacious warehouse and store 
room for machines and samples, with offices annexed, 
and a large machinery and operating room, with a 
laboratory and an engine and boiler house. The chief 
feature in the operating room is a new machine for 
dealing more particularly with leaf plants, such as 
phormium tenax, aloes, agavas, palms, aud the like. 
We saw, says a writer in The Times, who de- 
scribes the factory', some phormium teuax put through 
this machine with great success, aud with rapidity 
and simplicity. Another machine is a scutcher for 
hemp, flax, rheea, and, in fact, all stem fibres. 
In this we saw some rheea stems from France 
easily decorticated without previous soaking or 
steaming. The wood was well taken out and 
the fibre left ready for ungumming and subse- 
quent treatment. In the plants thus treated 
the fibre is got out mechanically, and is then treated 
according to requirement, by ungumming, bleaching, 
and preparing for spinning. There is also a spinning 
machine in order to test the various fibres in this 
respect, and to see how they are likely to meet the 
requirements of a commercial article. Another im- 
nortaut improvement is also being introduced at this 
factory, and that is the rapid retting of flax. The usual 
method of retting is to soak the flax in wafer for about 
three weeks. By the new process this will he effected 
in about a couple of hours. This quick action is brought 
about by submitting the flax to the intermittent in- 
fluence of heat and moisture, which is stated to he 
very effective, and in no way to act prejudicially upon 
the fibre. — H. and C. Mail. 
'I’HE BLACKMAN TEA WITHERING 
SYSTEM. 
Data, based upon actual working experi- nee in 
India, more than endorse the good opinion we formed 
of the Blackman system of tea withering when we 
commented upon it in 1885. The fact of its being a 
Iruh/ natural process, or more exactly speaking, a re- 
duction of the natural process to cornploto control, 
in tb(! simplest manner possible, at once invited 
sympathetic attention to it, in that all attempts 
to “wither ■' artificially as distinguished from 
“natural wither” bad so far proved failures. 
It was recognise ! that the oxtrenoo simplicity of the 
I'.lackman system, by requiring no miniipulation of 
I bo leaf, no boxing in of space, no trollies, aud in 
fact nothing but the simple fans erected judiciously 
to suit existing tea houses, left it unapproached for 
efficiency, simplicity, and economy. That this esti- 
mate was justified baa since been amply demonstrated 
by the unanimous testimony of those who have tried 
it according to the plans provided by the Black- 
man Ventilating Company’s exports. As we have said 
before, the fan is only the tool employed, and though 
its record of success is without rival, this success in a 
large measure depends upon the amount of skill 
shown in erecting the tool to suit local conditions 
and requirements. From time to time reports have 
come home from India which have been most en- 
couraging, but it was not till last cold weather that 
planters seem to have been irresistibly tempted by the 
results they wdressed on those gardens supplied with 
the system. Orders then came in freely from those dis- 
tricts where the success of installations erected upon the 
plans sent out from home had carried conviction to the 
sceptical. Some of the reports received by the 
managers of tea companies, from the garden managers, 
upon the working of the Blackman system tin's season, 
speak for themeelves. The manager of Teekulpar 
fCacbar), writirg to the manager of the Land Mortgage 
Bank, Limited, under date June 27th, 1890, says : 
“ The highly favourable characters the brokers give 
our latest teas, are duo to something more than the 
natural improvement- of the leaf, and I think this may 
fairly be attributed to the excellent work the Blackman 
propellers do. . . . Experience shows that the tempera- 
ture is not very high. . . . The morning’s leaf is 
weighed into the tea-house about midday, and the 
rolling commences some time that afterncon ; the 
evening’s leaf is either rolled the same night or very 
early the following morning. One very great advantage 
of this plan is the excellent colour we are able to get 
in the course of fermentation. . . . The fans have 
been put to a very special test during the past 
fortnight, the rain, day and night, having been almost 
incessant, so much so, indeed, that tome of our 
neighbours (without fans) have had to stop plucking 
as they cannot wither their leaf, but our manufac- 
turing of tea has gone on as usnal, and the quality of 
the tea is as good as if the weather were fine. . . . 
I am happy to be able to report that the use of the 
Blackman air propellers in our tea-house has been 
a very decided success, and that the general adop- 
tion of these useful machines should work a revolu- 
tion in the system of manufacturing tea.” The same 
manager, in a subseqeunt letter dated July 10th last, 
confirms his first report as follows : — “ The propellers 
are doing our work admirably, and we are having 
no difficulty in withering the whole of our leaf with 
them, and this during a success’on of weeks of the 
worst weather one could imagine for manufacturing.” 
The manager of Lattakoojan Tea Esta'e (As«am), 
writing to the manager of the Land Mortgage Bank, 
Limited, under date June 13th last, says ; — “ The 
time occupied in withering, of course, depends in a 
great measure on the number of dryers in full opera- 
tion on the ground floor, but in no case as yet has 
it exceeded five hours, the least time being only three 
bours. It matters not whether the leaf comes in dry or wet 
if there is sufficient heat on the ground floor a 
perfect ‘wither,’ as good as any natural 'wither,’ 
will be obtained iu the time specified. ... As 
the new withering loft can accommodate 90 maunds of 
leaf at a time and wither it at the latest in five hours, 
I need hardly say that we ate now quite independent 
of all the old witlteriny houses. 
“ Then, the manager of Boro Jalingah Tea Estate 
(Silchar) writing to the manager of L^nd Mortgage 
Bank, reports that ‘ It has been working since April 
27th and runs smoothly and well, withering leaf 
brought in at 12 o’clock in the forenoon, the same 
leaf being ready for rolling by 4-30 p.m. This I should 
not consider much of a test of the machine, as the 
chamber was only completed in part.’ ” 
These extracts show that experience i.s hea ing out 
most satisfactorily the forecast we ventured upon in 
1886. It is necessary to reiterate the desirability of 
the system being erected upon plans sent out from 
home, based upon the experienoe already there coL 
