1 Nov., 1897.] QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. 393 
A fear has been expressed lately in the public journals that, like the Sida 
retusa, nut-grass, &e., the ramie may become an ineradicable pest ; but Mr. 
Soutter, of the Brisbane Acclimatisation Gardens, and Mr. MacMahon, of the 
Brisbane Botanic Gardens, both declare that there is not the slightest 
foundation for any such alarm. We have ourselves grown the plant more 
than twenty years ago at Milton, and during six years the plant never seeded, . 
and was propagated by rooted stems. No caterpillar or other pest was ever 
seen on the plants, which grew well to a height of about 4: feet in a poor 
gravelly soil without any manure. ‘There is no visible sign of any disease or 
caterpillar on the plants in the Brisbane gardens. Instructions have been given 
to the managers of the Northern State Nurseries to plant a certain quantity of 
rhea in view of a possible demand springing up for plants, should Mr. Rowl’s 
machine prove to be of practical and economic value. 
Mr. Sidney Moxsy, of Jamaica, writing to the Tropical Agriculturist on 
the subject of ramie or rhea planting, replies to three important statements 
made in an article on ramie in that journal in May last. The statements 
are— 
1. That India generally is not so suited to ramie cultivation as has been 
supposed. 
2. That ramie, when grown in some places there, proved quite unfit for 
commercial purposes. 
8. The ramie cannot withstand a drought. 
As these statements are of interest to us in-this colony, where ramie may 
yet be grown profitably (although we doubt it, owing to the absence of the 
very cheapest labour) if it should be shown that a perfect decorticating 
machine has been produced, we give some of Mr. Moxsy’s replies to the 
statements. 
To No. 1 he replies that one of the chief and most important arguments ~ 
put to him why ramie is not likely to prove commercially successful in Jamaica 
is that the enormous quantity that could be produced in India would soon 
swamp the market, and would be put in at.a figure with which they Gn 
Jamaica) could not possibly compete. Now, the above article confutes this 
statement, and points out that only a comparatively small area in India is | 
suitable for the production of ramie on a business basis. He then points out 
that owing to greater proximity to a market, with the advent of a successful 
decorticating machine, the advantage of India would be greatly reduced, if not 
entirely swept away ; whilst,as to swamping the market, the innumerable uses 
to which ramie can be put and the low price at which it could be produced — 
underselling cotton, jute, flax, &c., and being capable of replacing all these to 
advantage—make it improbable that the world’s supply will exceed the demand, 
at least in this generation. 
The second statement is yet more important. It shows that, although 
ramie may be grown, it may turn out commercially useless. How is this to 
be ascertained without putting our locally-grown plant through a machine or 
process? It is most essential that we should be able to ascertain this before 
entering into extended cultivation. : 
The third statement—viz., that “drought will kill it outright,’’°—is incorrect. 
In one of the severest droughts ever known in Jamaica (in 1897), Mr. Moxsy 
cut ramie stalks averaging 3 feet 9 inches in length, and some were cut after 
three weeks’ growth over 4feet. The plants are two years old. Mr. Allison, 
a well-known authority on ramie, says, in reference to a Texan ramie planta- 
tion :—In 1889 a drought began, which lasted nine weeks. The soil was dried 
to a depth of 2 feet. Hundreds of thousands of coffee plants perished, but 
ramie survived the drought, and, when the rains came, grew with such 
luxuriance that often 150 stems were found in clusters not more than 2 feet 
in diameter. 
