Belgium, but without success. The stem is so full of sap that it 
causes a putrid fermentation which attacks the fibre as well as the 
gum. My results were merely a repetition of the experiences in 
Coutrai, 30 years ago, when the specialists in the treatment of flax 
utterly failed to do anything with ramie. 
5. Faure Decorticator .— The Faure was the first machine we 
tried. It was sent out at the end of 1898. Our produce from this 
was valued at from £17 to £20 a ton. It was somewhat difficult to 
manipulate. The variation of one-eighth of an inch in the adjust- 
ment, made the difference between an over. cleaned fibre (and con- 
sequently heavy loss in output) and a fibre, which through the 
presence of epidermis and an excess of gum, compared badly with 
the best quality of “China Grass” — as the hand prepared article is 
called in Europe. Our Malay coolies with experience became more 
adapt in adjusting the machine and in handling the fibre but the 
daily resujt was too small to admit of profit at £20 a ton. I re- 
turned to Europe and visited M. Faure at Limoges. I saw his 
machine worked by skilled French artisans and I realised that it 
would take some time before I could bring my Malays up to the 
same degree of efficiency and even then the output compared very 
poorly with that shewn in the prospectus. M. FAURE was at that 
time constructing a machine which he estimated would double the 
output. This invention, I learn from Mr. A. S. Baxendale, who 
was present on the occasion, was worked at the last Paris Exhibi- 
tion and was awarded the highest honours. Mr. A. S. Baxendale 
informs me that each machine required two men to feed- it, and 
that it then only dealt with two stems simultaneously. The treat- 
ment was very effective but costly. In justice to M. Faure, I must 
say that The prospectus referred to above, was not issued by him 
but by his English Agent and I do not think he was acquainted 
with its misleading contents. 
6 Eke Decorticator . — While in England I received the loan of 
an Eke Decorticator from a gentleman who had taken over several 
moribund concerns, which included not only this decorticating 
patent but a degumming process and a large silk and ramie mill. He 
was anxious to round off his interest by erecting a degummingfactory 
on this estate, and we discussed the details. His bankruptcy in- 
tervened before we come to terms but not however before we had 
shipped to him several bales of produce from the Eke machine. 
This decorticator turned out a considerably greater percentage of 
filasse than the former but it included all the epidermis and a suf- 
ficient amount of pith to make the combing difficult. There was 
no loss Of fibre. As the lender of the machine had no use for out 
produce, we sent a trial bale of it to another mill, where it was 
turned into yarn and sold to one of the largest ' saddlery manu- 
facturers in London. The Secretary of the spinning Company 
showed me a letter from the pnanufacturer in which he referred in 
enthusiastic terms to a recent purchase of yarn from them and the 
Secretary said that the particular order has been entirely fulfilled 
out of our bale. The Company’s expert adviser, the Mill Foreman 
