March  1897.]  THE  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURIST. 
599 
IIHEA  : A>EWFIBKE. 
How  many  bankruptcies  does  it  take  to  establish 
a new  industry?  British  i 
accounts  among  the  most  conservative  o “ ’ 
and  if  the  name  “ramie”  suggests  anythmg  to  a 
Lancashire  cotton-spinner  it  is  the  recollection  that 
a great  many  people  have  dropped  money  over  this 
particular  fibre.  Nevertheless  it  seems  probable  that 
Le  British  manufacturer  will  have  to  take  ramie 
seriously.  It  is  by  no  means  a new  irtvention  no 
one  can  say  for  bow  many  centuries  Oi'ent^ 
have  used  the  fibre,  which  is  found  the  bai 
of  a particular  kind  of  nettle,  to  make 
rouL'h,  strong  cloths  and  nets  or  lines  for  then  fishlin^. 
But  as  an  article  of  European  commerce  it  is 
so  new  as  hardly  to  be  counted  among  our  ™P°“S 
and,  though  the  plants  which  produce  it  have  foi 
many  years  been  cultivated  under  European  p 
vision,  it  has  only  been  for  the  purposes  of  specu- 
lative experiment.  The  plants  can  be  seen  grow  g 
any  summer  at  Kew;  one  of  them,  Ii//ea  *he 
Chinese  variety,  flourishes  in  the  open  an.  “ 
like  a Michaelmas  daisy  In  a clump  of  tal  shoi^ts 
springing  from  a perennial  root,  and  has  big  p, 
sLped  leaves  with  the  under  side  ® 
of  the  wild  guelder-rose  or  cherry-apple.  If  f 
the  bark  from  one  of  these  shoots  and  fray  it  whh  a 
knife  there  is  disclosed  a white,  silky  fibre,  very 
the  strand  and  extraordinarily  strong.  What  is  cahe^ 
China-grass  is  simply  these  ribbons  of  bark  carefully 
decorticated  by  hand  till  the  hh^e  is  left  bare,  it 
is,  however,  still  coarse  and  hard,  and  the  immense  y 
laborious  process  of  cleaning  makes  it  cost  too 
much  to  be  of  any  use  in  general  ‘^ade.  ihe 
ramie  of  commerce,  which  is  to  ’ 
hemp,  and  all  other  textile  fabincs  ° 
the  true  believers),  is  the  same  fibre  more  ch^ply 
and  better  prepared  from  a tropi&rl  vauety  of  ^ 
same  species,  A’hea  tetiacissima.  This  differs  from 
Mea  mvea  only  in  having  a gijeen  leaf ; out  t 
essential  point  of  the  matter  is  that  it  ^ ^opical, 
and.  will  produce  at  least  four  orops_  a year,  wh  le 
the  Chinese  plant  can  at  most  yield  t^o^  ihe 
intrinsic  value  of  the  fibre  has  for  a 
been  fully  admitted  ; so  much  so  that  ‘ Joomn 
Government  twice  offered  a prize  of  ^ . 
filasse  of  high  (luality  produced  at  a hin  ted  cc,  . 
The  prize  was  never  won.  The  difficulty  lay,  as  it 
b«.  the  peodnetbe  for  wh.oh  w„ 
distinct  operations  are  necessary.  Fust,  .foe  .^tems 
have  to  be  stripped  of  their  bark,  which  is  done  by 
hml  or  m ichioery,  f[-OOgh  '-o  machine  1 a^  ye^^^^^ 
i .vented  which  does  the  work  so  well  as  the  cheaply 
tnirchased  Oriental  hud  labour.  Second!},  in 
the  ribbons  so  striped  off,  the 
engaged  from  the  gummy  bark,  and  this  is  only 
possfble  by  a chemical  process.  No  mechanical 
method  can  thoroughly  separate  the  gom  and  the 
fibre,  although  at  least  two  companies  exist  which 
aim  at  preparing  ramie  wholly  by  machinery.  Par  - 
ous chemical  pi^ocesseswere  appUecl,  aU  of 
succeeded  in  turning  out  a clean  fil  asse  of  nbre  , 
but  unfortunately  when  the  filasse  was  worked  up 
into  yarns,  threads,  or  stuffs,  it  was  found  to 
perislf  after  a few  months.  The  strong  chemicals 
eSved  rotted  the  fibre.  This  happened  particu- 
larFv  with  the  products  of  rhea  prepared  iii  i lance, 
whSe  rout  te^  years  ago  |-at  interest  was  ^ 
in  the  matter.  After  the  French,  the  Americans 
took  it  up  and  prophesied  great  things , but 
they  also  dropped  money  over  it.  Now  it 
seems  that  England  is  going  to  step  in  and 
solve  the  problem.  Mr.  Gomess,  a chemist  trained 
in  this  country  but  of  Indian  origin  a 
method  which  turns  ^ 
cate  of  soda.  A company  has  been  ri- 
taken  out  all  over  the  world,  and  a sort  of  expert 
mental  factory  is  actually  at  work  in  London  which 
turns  out  about  two  tons  a week  of  ramie  leady  for 
The  process  is  simple  to  the  last  degree.  Two 
thinf^s  have  to  be  guarded  against.  First,  ferment- 
ation of  gum  in  the  ramie-ribbons  before  they  come 
fo  bo  “S^ufactured;  this  is  avoided  by  Bteepmg 
them  in  a solution  of  soda.  At  present,  of  course, 
the  preparation  of  these  ribbons  is  by  no  means 
perfect,  since  no  regular  market  has  existed  for  them. 
Now,  however,  in  many  tropical  countries  plantations 
of  ramie  are  being  set,  and  in  time  planters  will 
learn  to  send  their  ribbons  carefully  packed  and  cut, 
with  proper  precautions  against  the  fermentation 
which  rots  them.  Secondly,  the  chief  trouble  has  been 
to  find  chemicals  which  would  convert  the  ribbons 
into  filasse  with  a sufficiently  weak  solution.  This 
is  what  Mr.  Gomess  has  done.  The  ribbons  are  first 
steeped  in  tanks  with  a little  infusion  of  nitric  acid 
to  soften  the  gum;  after  twelve  hours  of  this  they 
go  into  a bath  of  alkaline  solution.  Then  they  are 
boiled  in  a tank  of  water  impregnated  with  the  zin- 
cate  of  soda,  and  what  comes  out  is  pure  fibre;  the 
gum  and  epidermis  of  the  bark  is  completely  dis- 
solved. At  no  stage  is  anything  used  stronger  than 
a 1 per  cent  solution.  The  filasse  when  washed  and 
bleached,  may  be  mixed  with  inferior  silk,  or  worked 
up  by  itself ; and  it  can  be  sold  at  a profit  for  3d  a 
pound.  Flax  in  the  same  stage  of  prep.aration  costs  from 
8d  to  is.  Thus  the  ramie-fibre  can  be  sold  almost  as 
cheaply  as  the  cheapest  cotton  ; it  has  strength  suffi- 
cient for  any  use.,  and  it  will  neither  shrink  nor  stretch 
It  is  very  light,  and  as  much  sail-cloth  can  be  made 
from  six  pounds  of  ramie  as  from  ten  pounds  of  flax  ; 
indeed  its  advantage  in  this  respect  has  been  already 
recognised.  The  ‘Defender’s’  canvas  was  made  of 
rhea-fibres,  which  had  to  be  bought  up  piecemeal  in 
England  and  were  woven  in  America.  It  will  take 
dyes  of  all  shades,  and  from  it  are  made  fabrics 
resembling  damask  linen,  silk,  plush,  and  tapestry. 
These  were  good  enough  to  look  at,  but  all  some- 
what harsh  to  handle.  It  is  fair,  however,  to  re- 
member that  the  manufacture  is  in  its  infancy,  and 
that  the  weavers  do  not  yet  know  how  to  use  the 
stuff  to  the  best  advantage.  But  there  seems  no 
doubt  that  in  the  qualities  of  cheapness  and  durabi- 
li  y it  will  be  a real  addition  to  the  wealth  of  man- 
kind. The  filasse  is  naturally  so  glossy  that  it  seems 
specially  fitted  to  compete  with  linen,  and  Belfast 
merchants  would  probably  be  well  advised  to 
look  into  the  matter  at  once.  Silk  it  will  pro- 
bably never  rival,  but  it  might  very  well  sweep 
off  the  face  of  the  earth)  all  the  innumerable  cheap 
combinations  of  silk  and  wool,  which  are  used  in 
upholstery  and  the  like  ; and  for  tov/els,  dish-cloths, 
and  the  whole  paraphernalia  of  washing  up  it  ought 
to  be  unsurpassable.  These,  however,  are  high 
matters,  too  hard  for  anything  but  the  far-reaching 
experience  of  woman.  The  most  iiiterestiug  point 
about  ramie  is  that  the  new  industry,  when  created, 
may  not  improbably  solve  a very  awkward  problem 
in  the  management  of  Great  Britain’s  enormous 
tropical  estate. 
The  West  Indies  are  in  a bad  way,  as  every  one 
knows,  because  there  is  no  price  for  sugar,  and  because 
the  sugar-growing  colonies  have  imported  coolie 
l ibour  to  an  immense  extent.  Demerara,  for  instance, 
has  half  a million  of  them.  These  coolies  must,  by 
the  contract  made  with  [the  Indian  Government,  re- 
ceive constantly  their  shilling  a day,  or  else 
Demerara  must  pay  their  passage  and  expenses 
back  to  India.  Say  that  costs  £10  a head.  Deme- 
rara cannot  get  rid  of  her  coolies  without  paying 
a fine  of  five  millions;  she  must  therefore  go  on 
sugar-growing  whether  she  likes  it  or  no.  But  wherever 
sugar  can  be  grown  rhea  can  be  grown  also ; and 
coolie  labour  is  quite  sufficiently  skilled  not  only  for 
cutting  the  crop  and  stripping  the  bark  by  hand  or 
machine,  but  also  for  preparing  the  fillasse.  There 
is  everything  to  bo  said  in  favour  of  employing  the 
Gomess  process  at  the  place  where  the  crop  is  grown. 
First,  a plant  which  yields  four  or  five  crops  a 
year  exhausts  the  soil  with  great  rapidity.  The 
fibrine  is  only  .5  per  cent,  of  the  whole,  and  the  other 
1)5  per  cent,  should  go  back  into  the  ground, — the 
leaves  as  leaf-mould ; the  sticks,  after  they  have 
served  for  fuel,  in  the  form  of  ashes.  Secondly,  the 
less  chemicals  used  the  better  ; and  if  the  process 
is  applied  when  the  bark  is  soft  and  freshly 
peeled,  a weaker  solution  will  suffice  to  dissolve  the 
gum.  Also,  out  of  a ton  of  rhea-ribbons  only  sistj 
