64 
Fibrous Products in 
[February, 
produces pods serving as a substitute for soap, but not in 
sufficient quantities for manufacturing uses, and in efficacy 
could not compete with caustic soda, which can be imported 
into India from Europe at £ 8 per ton, and is the most 
likely substance to be useful after the resinous substances 
have been disposed of. And trials could be made, using for 
the purpose a wooden boiler, say 6 feet long and 14 inches 
wide by 14 inches deep, and bolted together by J-incli screw- 
bolts inside the box, which should rest on wails of mud 
3 feet high, with that clear space for a wood fire beneath ; 
the sides of the boiler to be built in by a mud wall about 
8 inches thick, to conserve the heat to boiling-point if re- 
quired ; and a small chimney is necessary to carry off the 
smoke and conduct the flame along the bottom of the boiler, 
which would last a long time if kept with water and clear 
from cemented sediment ; and I have used such primitive 
boilers for other purposes, from knowing that they were used 
in our first steam-boilers in consequence of the urgent neces- 
sities of inventors, and only by such trials on the spot can 
advances really be obtained, following out in the main 
Chinese methods, which do not injure the fibre. 
Dr. John Forbes Royle says of the Bcehmevia nivea, or 
Rhea fibre-plant, that it is likely to prove one of the most 
valuable products of India, for in strength it exceeds the 
best hemp, and in fineness it rivals the superior kinds of 
flax. Its culture is well known to the natives of Assam, 
and it has also succeeded in Tenasserim, and it is grown in 
Siam and other eastern countries and islands, and can now 
be produced, and sold with profit, at as cheap a rate as 
Russian hemp ; and if any machine could be employed for 
facilitating the separation of the fibre from the outer bark 
and the woody parts of the stalk, it would speedily under- 
sell all other fibres, as from four to five crops per year can 
be obtained from the same plants; it is identical with the 
Rhea grown in China, but of coarser quality. In its culti- 
vation manure is required, and moisture essential to quick 
growth, as well as shade, and some protection from storms. 
It is grown from separate roots, and may be cut down seve- 
ral times in the year, and the aggregate produce of an acre 
is about 12 maunds. 
“ The different crops vary in quality, the earlier being the 
strongest and finest, and the veritable China grass sells in 
this country at from £60 to £80 per ton. Very serious 
faults have been committed in the process of cleansing 
Indian fibres, which have tended in a great measure to 
deprive them of their value for manufacturing purposes. In 
