1 Aprin, 1899.] QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. 299 
RAMIE CULTIVATION. 
Agatn the question of ramie has come to the front, and some planters, 
both in the North and South of the colony, are asking for information. We ~ 
refer inquirers to our articles on the subject in Vol. IL, pp. 45 to 47, of the 
Journal for full particulars. 
Meanwhile, it will be of interest to intending planters to read what Mr. J. 
M. MacDonald (of the firm of MacDonald, Boyle, and Co., London) said on 
the subject when in Ceylon to a representative of the Colombo Tropical 
Agriculturist. “! 
On the point of production, it would be well to give the following absolutely 
authentic information :— 
PRODUCTION. 
In planting ramie, the cuttings should not be placed more than 18 inches 
apart. I advocate only 12 inches. The closer (in reason) that cuttings are 
placed the better for two reasons: (1) That no weeding would be necessary 
after the plants are 8 feet high; (2) the stems grow perfectly straight 
without lateral branches, which are very deleterious to the fibre. The 
first cutting can be taken in 3 months, but to be on the safe side we will. 
say 6. Many experts have said that the first cutting from a plantation 
is useless, but here you see (showing a stick of Ramie) a3 months’ stick which 
has been produced from the estate of Mr. Thomas Gibson, the secretary of 
the United Planters’ Association at Klang (Selangor). You see that the stem 
is 5 feet high; it is at least t-inch in diameter, and with perfectly good and 
strong fibre, which you can find by taking hold of the fibre and pulling it. This 
stem is one of those produced from a cutting about 6 inches long, planted 
only 3 months before the stem was taken. The stool contained altogether 
fitty stems in vigorous growth, which no doubt in 6 weeks’ time would have 
produced about a fifth of that number of mature stems. This plant is one of 
a number which Mr. Gibson had dug up and showed at a meeting of the United 
Planters’ Association of the Federated Malay estates. 
* RAPIDITY OF PRODUCTION, 
With regard to the rapid production in the Straits Settlements, we have 
the evidence of Mr. Gibson’s plantation, where, as I have already stated, in 3 
months’ time there is a crop of stems ready to cut and plentful supply coming 
forward, a fifth of which in 6 weeks will.be ready for harvesting. Now, 
instead of taking 3 months as the earliest cutting we will assume that it will 
take 6 months to produce three stems and not six. It becomes necessary to 
consider how many stems can be produced to the acre and what the weight of 
those stems would be. During the course of the experiments at Kuala Lumpur, 
in Selangor, carried on before a meeting of the United Planters’ Association, 
a trial was made of a given number of stems taken haphazard from a heap lying 
there. It was found that the mean of fifteen stems, small and large shoots, 
weighed 4'8 oz. each, but for the purpose of our calculation we will say 4: 02. 
Taking, therefore, cuttings as having been put in at 18 inches apart, 
this would give eight to the square yard or 88,720 to the acre. Assuming that 
each plant only produces three stems each in 3 months, and calculating these 
at 4 oz. each, it is found that you can obtain 18 tons per acre, and inasmuch as 
the stems renew themselves every 6 weeks this will give an aggregate of 78 tons 
of stems per acre perannum. Bear in mind that this calculation only assumes 
a production of half the quantity actually produced from Mr. Gibson’s estate. 
Mr. MacDonald here handed to our representative a printed report of the 
proceedings of the United Planters’ Association, which fully bore out his 
statement. 
HOW RAMIE IS DEALT WITH. 
We will notice now the reports of the “experts,” when they speak of 
obtaining so many cuttings per annum, varying from two to four. ‘he prac- 
tice has hitherto been to mow down the whole plantation, hand over the stems 
to natives, when they are stripped by hand, and then the ribbons are dried and. 
