5i 
The Malayan Ramie Company. 
A company for the cultivation and preparation of Ramie has been 
formed in London under the title given above, and among the directors 
we see the names of Sir M/illiam Hood Treacher and Mr. William 
Meikle, both well-known names in the Malay Peninsula. The 
manager is Mr. E. F. Pumpin who has long made a study of the Ramie 
plant and visited the East in 1900, examining the conditions of growth 
and cultivation of the plant. He visited Indo-China and the Malay 
Peninsula, spending some time at the Botanic Gardens in Singapore. 
The Company proposes to start their plantations in Sarawak. The 
share capital is £25,000, divided into 25,000 shares of £1 each. With 
the prospectus is issued a memorandum on the cultivation and treat- 
ment of Ramie, which we give below. One would be glad to see this 
valuable fibre under good and successful cultivation and wish the 
undertaking every success. 
The Malayan Ramie Company, Limited. 
Memorandum referred to in the accompanying Prospectus. 
22 nd November, 1907 . 
Notes on Ramie and its Cultivation and Treatment. 
Ramie is the name now generally used for the fibre obtained from 
certain species of Urticacce (Nettle), indigenous to some tropical 
countries. China-grass, nettle-flax, and rhea are other names for the 
same fibre. 
The nettle plant, the cane of which yields this fibre, is cultivated 
principally in the East, and there only successfully within certain 
well-defined geographical limits. 
Although the plant appears to grow on any kind of soil in the 
tropics where the rainfall is sufficient, it does not grow so vigorously 
and successfully on stiff, clayey, nor on dry, stony lands, nor on soils 
standing poor in lime and potash, nor on lands which are periodically 
flooded. It requires a well-drained, rich, alluvial soil, and the ideal 
climatic conditions for its growth, both in respect of quantity and 
quality, are a relatively constant warm temperature, not fluctuating 
greatly, combined with that humid atmosphere which results from an 
abundant rainfall well distributed throughout the year. The Malay 
Peninsula, Borneo, and the Philippines are specially suitable in this 
respect. It requires also a regular planting and a careful and 
systematic cultivation, without which it will never be a paying crop. 
It has been conclusively proved that Ramie, when properly 
cultivated under favourable conditions of climate and soil, will yield 
five or six crops annually of the best sort of stems for industrial 
