300 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. [1 Aprin, 1899. 
packed into bales and sent away. A native has to produce a certain quantity 
of ribbons per day. It is perfectly immaterial to him whether he strips 
mature or immature stems, and the result is that in one bale of ribbons we 
obtain in some cases as many as twelve classes of fibre. I need not 
point out to you that this cropping system is a very objectionable one, 
inasmuch as stems from 6 inches to 2 feet high, which would be the 
large majority of the stems, are utterly destroyed and wasted. I there- 
fore advocate the daily cutting system whereby only the mature stems 
are cut, and so arranging your planting that this may be effected 
daily, so that the coolie can go gradually through his 2 acres, and on his return 
to the starting point he will find the immature stems he left have ripened and 
are ready for harvesting. By this means it is obvious you more than treble 
the amount of your crop. I consider that each acre of land should produce 
3 cwt. of stems per day. A coolie, therefore, from 2 acres of land, will have to 
cut 6 ewt. Taking the day at 10 hours, this means that he will have to cut 
about three stems a minute, and bale and deliver them every hour to the tram 
lines, when they would be picked up and delivered to the decorticators. Of 
course this is only possible in countries where the climate is equable throughout 
the year. The great advantage of this system ensures the quality of the fibre, 
and is a guarantee to the manufacturer that the quality will always remain the 
same, 
DOES RAMIE EXHAUST THE SOIL? 
A great dealhas been said with regard to ramie as an exhauster of the 
soil. It has been thought, because it is possible to obtain more than 80 tons to 
the aere on good land under favourable conditions, that an enormous quantity of 
material must be taken away from the land, but it is entirely lost sight of that 
ramie contains 80 per cent of water, so that after all there isnot so much taken 
out of the soil as would be imagined, and if the system be adopted of returning 
leaves and the refuse from the decorticators, in the shape of ashes, to the land, 
it follows that the fibre itself (only from 2% to 3 per cent. of the crop) is actually 
taken from the soil. ; 
THE AMERICAN EXPERIMENTS. 
Experiments were carried out by the American Board of Agriculture in 
California to test the exhausting nature of ramie, and an acre was placed under 
cultivation, and the crops taken during 4 years. Nothing whatever in the 
shape of manure was applied to the land, not even the refuse from the stems, 
and it was found that the fourth year’s crop was larger than the first, Of 
course this may be in consequence of the richness of the land, but at all events 
the fact remains. 
Mr. MacDonald added that there is no fear of a market for the present, as 
_ one firm alone in Dundee had offered to enter into a contract to take 100 tons 
a month at £42 a ton, and inasmuch as the stuff can be grown, treated, baled, 
and imported into England with freights and all charges paid, including 
brokerage, at 14d. per lb., this would leave a very handsome margin of profit to 
the grower. 
SUGAR IN THE WEST INDIES. 
We take from the Report on the Economie Resources of the West Indies by 
Dr. Morris, C.M.G., &c., the following very interesting notes on the state of 
the sugar industry in those islands :— 
BARBADOS. 
Sugar has been grown in Barbados for the last 200 years. 74,000 acres 
are under cane. Some two millions sterling are invested in the industry. 
The cultivation (says Dr. Morris) is carried on in a most careful and 
systematic manner. ‘The soil is treated with artificial and other manures, and 
its capacity for yielding is still as good as that of any other country. 
