242 
THE  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURIST.  [Oct.  i,  1896. 
MARAtiOUlPE  COFFEE  ; A (^UEUY. 
A planter  asks  : — “Does  Maragogipe  coll'eo  grow 
in  Ceylon,  and  is  tliere  a inarket  for  same  in 
London  ?”  Ferhajis  some  of  our  readeis  will  In* 
able  to  give  full  (.letails.  We  bave  seen  tlie  seed 
•advei-tised  for  sale  in  Ceylon. 
FORESTS  IX  INDIA  AND  THEIR  Rli- 
VENCE. 
A short  lime  baek  we  ilrew  attention  to  the 
handsome  snri)lus  aecruing  to  the  State  from 
forests  in  the  year  JShd-DU,  and  the  eoniparative 
tigui'es  may  now  he  given  in  detail.  The  ])ro- 
vinces  under  the  control  of  the  Oovernment  ol 
India,  Madras  and  Romhay  being  e.\cluded, 
yielded  the  following  surplus  during  the  (juin- 
(piennial  i)eriods  inentioned  : - 
1870-71  to  187-1-7") 
1870-70  to  1870-SO 
188U-S1  to  1884-8.') 
188.')-80  to  1889-9(1 
1890-91  to  1894-9.') 
Rs.  11,12,000 
„ 17,18,000 
,,  2:5,80,000 
,,  158,42,000 
„ .')3,.')  1,000 
In  the  year  which  has  just  passe<l  the  surplus 
W'as  Rs.  08.41,000.  Madras  and  Rombfiy  may 
be  taken  as  givin.g  at  least  22  lakhs,  so  we 
have  a net  surplus  for  all  India  and  Rurma  of 
about  80  lakhs  of  rupees.  In  years  to  come  it  will 
doubtless  rise  to  a erore,  for  Upper  Rurma  has 
by  no  means  reached  its  limit  of  production,  and 
as  the  country  is  opened  out  the  revenue  must 
e.xpand.  The  Forest  Officers,  to  who.se  enen.’^y  and 
ability  this  development  is  due,  as  a whole  lead 
hard  lives,  with  a good  deal  of  e.xposure  and  a 
good  deal  of  .solitude,  often  pn  unhealthy  climates. 
Rut  even  if  their  lines  were  all  cast  in  as  pleasant 
places  as  those  of  the  lucky  few,  it  would  be  no 
reason  for  meanly  wriggling  out  of  a concession 
that  has  ))ublicly  been  granted  and  announced. 
A NEW  INDUSTRY  FOR  INDIA  ; 
RHEA  EIRRE  AND  DRUGS. 
The  remarkable  development  of  the  Rhea  fibre 
throws  for  the  moment  all  tariff  differences 
between  Romhay  and  Manchester  into  the  shade. 
The  Indian  Government  has  long  been  aware  that 
in  this  widely  spread  variety  of  the  nettle  family 
its  provinces  possess  a source  of  unused  wealth. 
In  1809  it  offered  a reward  of  £5,000  for  the  in« 
vention  of  a machine  or  process  whiL-h  sfiould 
separate  the  delicate  fibre  from  the  bark  atacost 
consistent  with  the  rei,uirements  of  commerce. 
An  offer  of  R5U,000  was  renewed  in  1877. 
Various  machines  were  submitteil  under  these  in- 
ducements, but  they  failed  in  regard  to  the 
essential  element  of  cheapness,  and  after  many 
trials  the  offers  were  withdrawn.  The  eflectually 
attracted,  however,  the  attention  of  e.xperts  in 
Great  Rritain,  Europe,  and  America.  Rhea 
became  recognized  as  one  of  the  most  valuable 
fibres  known  to  the  ancient  or  modern  world.  Its 
use  in  Egypt,  India,  and  China  dates  from  befoie 
the  dawn  of  history.  Rhea  cloth  is  unrolled  from 
the  mummies  of  the  Nile  and  unearthed  in  the 
burial  mounds  of  Assam.  'J'he  nets  and  lines  spun 
from  it  had,  for  strength,  fineness,  and  durability; 
no  riv  Is  among  the  iishermen  of  ilengal  and  the 
Malay  Archipelago.  As  “Cliina  grass”  it  won 
its  way  about  the  !)eginning  of  thi.s  century  into 
European  commerce. 
The  dilliculty  is  to  separate  the  strong  silky 
fibres  of  the  bark  from  the  outer  cuticle  and  the 
tenacious  gums  in  which  they  lie  embedded.  In 
the  past,  when  labour  was  of  little  .account,  the 
wives  or  d.aughters  of  the  hush.andmen  and  fishing 
communilies  scraiJCil  and  washed  small  quantities 
of  the  bark  till,  by  the  |)ejsistent  toil  of  many 
days,  each  family  produced  a few  handfuls  of  the 
much-prized  fibre.  Rut  the  cost  of  this  manual 
process  proved  an  insnpeiable  dilliculty  in  the 
adoption  of  Rhea  for  modern  textile  niannfac- 
tnre.s.  Dr.  Royle,  as  industrial  .advi.^er  to  the 
India  Oflice,  showed  that  the  Rhea  Ubics  “are 
exceeded  by  none  in  finenes.s,  excel  all  others  in 
strength,  and  may  be  fitly  compared  to  the  trunk 
of  an  ele])hant  which  can  jiick  up  a needle  or  root 
u[)  a tree.”  He  declared  that,  if  the  difficulty  of 
sei)arating  the  fibre  can  be  overcome,  “ the  bene- 
fits to  Imlia  and  the  world  will  he  inc.alculable.” 
It  is  this  ))roblem  that  the  chemists  ami  m.achi- 
nists  of  Europe  and  .America  har  e during  the  ))ast 
.■>()  years  been  endearouring  tn  soh  e.  I*'r.ance  anti 
Germany  at  once  entered  the  field  with  factories 
for  the  extraction  of  the  fibre,  'i'hey  rvorked  it  ti|> 
into  many  forms,  from  ropes  and  sail  cajivas  to 
))lushes  iiml  dress-pieces  resembling  silk  gootls  in 
apitearance.  They  failed,  however,  to  ]tit)duce  <a 
lilasse,  or  clean  libre,  rvhich  should  be  at  once 
cheap  and  serviceable.  No  machine  or  juerely 
mechanical  operation  elimiiiated  the  resins  with 
a perfection  rvliich  yielded  line  yarns,  except  at  a 
cost  prohibitive  of  their  general  use. 
The  chemists  seemed  for  a time  to  be  more  suc- 
cessful. They  produced  by  means  of  various  re- 
agents a lilasse  which  was  at  once  cheap  and 
apparently  sound.  Beautiful  fabrics  were  woven 
on  the  (:ontinent,  and  the  inventors  l.aid  out  a 
large  capital,  in  the  belief  that  they  had 
solved  the  problem.  Rut  by  tlie  time  the  fabrics 
came  into  the  hands  of  the  consumers,  indeed 
often  before  they  passed  from  the  shops  of  the 
retail  dealers,  it  was  found  that  the  chemicals 
had  injtirod  the  fibre,  .and  the  goods  were  often 
returned  to  the  makers.  Process  after  process  and 
niiichine  .after  machine  failed  to  extract  a Rhea 
libre  which  should  be  both  durable  and  cheap. 
The  honour  of  solving  the  problem  has  fanen 
to  an  English  chemist,  born,  we  believe,  in 
India.  Mr.  Gomess  after  many  exiierimetits 
elaborated  ,a  proce.ss  which  the  Indian  Govern- 
ment is  .at  length  able  to  pronounce  a complete 
success.  “The  difliculties  which  previously  ex- 
isted,” says  the’  ollicial  memor.andum  lately 
issued  by  its  Inspector-General  of  Forests,  “in 
leg.ard  to  the  extraction  of  th.e  valu.able  textile 
fibre  from  the  bark  of  the  Rhea  plants  have  been 
entirely  overcome  by  what  is  known  as  the 
Gomess  ])rocess,  and  a large  dem.and  has  s]irung 
up  for  ribbons  of  dried  bark  with  every  )iroba- 
bility  of  its  increasing  to  enormous  proportions.” 
After  referring  to  the  operations  of  the  Eliea 
I'ibre  'i'reatment  Companj^  in  London  and  its 
dependent  associations  now  being  established 
throughout  India,  Europe,  and  America,  tlie 
ollicial  memorandum  inoceeds  to  indicate  how 
the  iiroiluction  of  the  fibre  m.ay  be  increased  in 
lu'.actically  unlimited  quantities  to  meet  the  de- 
mand. “'I'liese  facts  seem  to  point  to  the  conclu- 
sion tluat  we  are  on  the  d.awn  of  an  industry  which 
even  ]>romises  to  rival  jute  cultivation.”  The 
fn.spector-Gencr:,l  then  draws  out  a scheme  for 
aiding  the  culti\  afors  by  ollicial  information  as  to 
the  areas  most  suitable,  fm-  the  growth  of  the  jilant 
and  the  r arie'.ies  best  adapted  to  each  locality,  and 
by  Govei  nment  experiments  as  to  the  best  modes 
oi'  stripjiing,  <hying,  and  baling  the  bark.  'I'he 
subject,  he  insisi.--,  “ becomt.s  all  the  more  impor- 
tant and  urgent  as  reporls  reach  us  from  the  French 
colonies  of  considerable  activity  in  the  Rliea  fibre 
trade,  and  as  it  would  not  be  convenient  to  bo  out- 
stripped by  them,” 
