330 
THE 1 R 0 PICAL AGRICULTX^RIST. 
most inaccessible tea gardens in the hills ; whereas 
it would take days of labour and anxiety, with hun- 
dreds of coolies, to drag a steam boiler and engine. 
As a matter of fact, it has been found to be quite 
impracticable in some of the hill gardens. We would 
impress on all interested in lea, who decide to adopt 
electricity as a motive power, the necessity of having 
the plant erected, and fitted up, at the outset by a 
thorough, practical engineer, as the secret of success 
is that electrical plants must be thoroughly put 
together, and if this is done they will run for years 
without giving any trouble. 
Many who are not conversant with electricity have 
an idea that it is a dangerous power ; that is a 
great mistake, as the only danger lies in touching 
the exposed parts which are charged with electricity, 
and there is no reason or necessity for doing so; 
but even should this occur, the only result would be 
a severe shock, as the power required for a tea garden 
would not be sufficiently strong to cause any serious 
accident. It has been very amusing to read in the 
local papers articles headed “ The Dangers of Elec- 
tricity,” the writers of these articles appear to forget 
that, accidents due to electricity are few and far 
between, whereas accidents from steam are of frequent, 
we may say almost daily, occurrence. We are con- 
hdeut that such articles appi aring in type will not 
affect the p' ogress of the electricity, and we are 
glad to see that our enquiries in our issue of last 
March, “ Notes on Electricity ” as to ‘‘ Whether 
Electricity had been adopted in any of the Hill 
Tea Gardens,” have brought to light the fact that 
it has been successfully introduced ; and we have 
no doubt that it will eventually, in the near future, 
be generally adopted, both in India and Ceylon. 
There are three illustrations entitled : — Thurbo 
Factory, Darjeeling ; A corner of the Factory 
shewing Electric Motor and leaf rollers ; The 
Manchester Motor shewing regulator and electric 
light connections. 
As a 8i(pj)lcment to the Engineer, there is an 
extremely good photo etching of the effects of 
the earthquake on Munshai Bridge, Cooch 
Beltar State Railway. Altogether this issue is a 
splendid one of the new journal, and we congra- 
tulate all concerned on its get-up, 
“THE PROSPECTS OF RAMIE 
CULTIVATION IN PERAK.” 
ME. L. WRAY’S ESTIMATE SHOWS A LOSS 
ON THE CULTIVATION; 
ME. E. MATHIEU— A NET PROFIT UP TO 
136i DOLLARS PER ACRE. 
MR. J. M. MACDONALD’S ESTIMATED PROFIT, 
£25 TO NEARLY £50 PEE ACRE ! 
WOULD THE SOUTHERN PROVINCE OF 
CEYLON RETURN £5 PER ACRE PROFIT? 
We have received a packet of papers on the 
above subject from the Straits Settlements con- 
taining information of an exceptionally inter- 
esting character. To the literature on “ Ramie ” 
Fibre, its cultivation and preparation, there is 
literally no end. We are heartily tired our- 
selves of all the glowing reports and circulars 
issued by interested Companies in the old 
country,— of the many new processes and patents 
which are to make the fortune not only of the 
holders, but of the producers of the fibre; 
and of the diverse instructions offered by 
gentlemen who probably never saw a tropical 
fibre-yielding plant in its habitat, nor did any 
practical cultivation in their lives. It has, there- 
fore, become our practice to dispose of all fresh 
circulars or reports on “Ramie” after a very 
[Nov. I, 1897. 
cursory inspection ; but in the present case we 
have ijeen appiste<l l>y a careful summary of 
atailable information prepared for the Perak 
Government by Mr. L. Wray, junr., respecting 
the yield per acre, the cost of harvesting and 
prej>aring, and finally the value of the result. 
Here is the information as to j’ield put into 
tabular form 
Foibes Eoyle 
J. Blontgomery (mean) 
Hardy 
e.m. 
E. Mathieu .. 
Fibre. 
lb. 
900 
986 
1,260 
610 
1,881 
Ribbon. 
lb. 
1,280 
1,314 
2,100 
1,080 
2,608 
Mean yield per acre 1,173 .. 1,666 
The mean yield of fibre is therefore a few pounds 
over half e- ton, and *739 of a ton of ribbon per acre* 
that IS about 14| cwt. or 12^ pikuls. 
Then as to cost : — 
Very little is to be found, in any of the acconnts 
of ramie, of the cost of the cultivation. It is vari- 
ously stated that one coolie can keep in order 2 to 
3 acres of land ; while no information is available 
as to the cost of gathering, boiling, stripping, dying 
and baling the ribbon. Taking the mean, that is one 
coolie to 2^ acres of land, or 2 coolies to 5 acres, 
wages at $9 per month, the cost per annum 
18 $43 20 per acre, and per ton of ungathered ribbon 
^ have already said, there is nothing on 
which to base an estimate of the cost of harvesti ng 
and preparing the crop. The process is as follows- — 
The stalks are cut near the ground, then stripped 
of leaves and topped. They are then carried to the 
bcihng tanks and boiled for about a quarter of an 
houn The bark is then stripped off by hand, carried 
to the works to dry, when quite dry it is sorted into 
lengths, and baled ready for shipment. Considering 
that some 15 tons of stalks have to be treated per 
acre, I do not think that less than $20 could be 
allowed per ton of libbon. This wonld bring up the 
ribbon to $78'45 per ton or $57'98 per acre. 
, then supervision, manure, rent, duty and 
buildings. The least that can be allowed for this 
IB $10 per acre per year. Taking a 500-acre estate 
this would be made up as follows : — 
Rent at 50 cents per acre . , 
Supervision, $300 per month 
Manure 
Upkeep of buildings 
Duty on 369'5 tons at 2J% 
) 250 
3,600 
500 
250 
623 
5 223 
The final cost of the ribbon wonld be $91-97 per 
ton or $67'98 per acre. 
Summing up as to result, Mr. Wray is not en- 
couraging : — 
Dr. D. Morris, the Assistant Director of the Royal 
Garden, Kew, in a lecture delivered on the 30th 
November, 1896, gives the price of ribbon as £8 per 
^*^0®® J’ol' appear that more than 
£7 ($67’20) per ton could be reckoned on for the rib- 
bon, and as by the above estimate it would cost to 
grow and prepare $9197 per ton, it would appear 
that there is a loss of $4-77 per ton or $18'30 for each 
acre of cultivation. There is another side to this 
question, and that is for the planter to also be the 
manufacturer of the finished product, in the same 
way as sugar planters are. 
Wray’s Report came from 
Mr. E. Mathieu of Singapore who quotes actual 
experiments made for two years at Buitenzorg 
Java, under the control of the Director of 
Botanic Gardens : — 
“ One bouw gives four cuttings in one year, weigh- 
ing in the aggregate .34,000 kilos of green stems, 
without leaves and topped.” 
In English figures this works out 
One bouw (If acres)=74,000 lb. of green stems, strip- 
„ ped and topped 
One acre =42,800 „ ,, „ 
