red liquid tipped with a white porcelain neck and stopper. They 
were erect on the leaf 19 in a cluster. They hatched out in:o 
yellow bugs too young to identify. They might be either carni- 
vorous or plant sucking bugs. 
In a later letter, Mr. BURGESS states that more beetles have at- 
tacked the young plants, and that when they bite the shoots they 
are caught by the outflowing latex and soon perish. He suggests 
that this action of the latex shows at least one use of it to the 
plant inasmuch as it destroys any would be depredators, and so 
protects the seedlings. — Editor , 
EAMIE. 
To the Editor of the Agricultural Bulletin. 
Sir, — Through the courtesy oi a friend, who has been many years 
in the Straits Settlements, who is at present on a visit here, I was 
favoured with a perusal of your interesting Journal in which I see a 
correspondence between Mr. Baxendale and Mr. Radciatfe on 
Ramie growing and treatment. The one professes to grow It suc- 
cessfully and the other professes to be able to treat it. Here then 
is a combination that ought to solve the Ramie problem which is 
not the simple affair that Mr. RadclyFFE thinks in so far as the 
supply of cheap labour is concerned as what can be done in China 
by hand could not be accomplished in any other country where the 
plant could be grown. From all that I have seen, read and been 
able to do with Ramie I have arrived at the conclusion that the 
fibre has been kept in the back ground by the ignorant interference 
of people who have had no training in the working of any known 
textile. Owing to this they have employed expensive methods and 
machines where none have been needed in the preparation of the fibre, 
which has been so prepared that this had to be followed .up by 
machinery specially designed to prepare and spin the fibre into 
yarns. 
These conditions create a deadlock to the expansion of Ramie 
culture as the grower requires to be assured of a market and a good 
one at that for his produce, while the manufacturer will not incur 
the enormous expense of specially designed machinery unless he is 
certain that abundant and ample supplies can be had. My own 
idea to get over this difficulty is to prepare the fibre to suit existing 
conditions so that ordinary flax and tow machinery could work it 
up without the slightest alteration. That this can be done and has 
been done I have proved by results admitted to be very satisfactory. 
This then gives Ramie a footing in the textile industries, as it will 
not matter whether the manufacturer gets a ton to buy or a thou- 
sand. He is at no expense or disadvantage in using the fibre so 
prepared. 
In doing this there is no question as to the relative cost of 
Ramie precluding it from successfully competing with even the 
finest of flax as good brown ribbon such as Mr. Baxendale grows 
