The record-union., 1891-02-21


OF the opinion that a much larger product
of dry fiber could be obtained from the
Sacramento and San Joaquin Valleys,
where the climate is more favorable and
better adapted to the cultivation of the
ramle plant than the adobe land and
cold dry winds and no irrigation of the
experimental gardens at Berkeley.
The California Ranie Company will
agree to pay four cents per pound for
good merchantable fiber, which, based
upon Professor Hilgard's report, would
amount to S120 per acre off four cuttings.
Estimated expenses Of the first year, each
cutting, ETC., about Sl2-say for cuttings
S4S.
Value of hber... 90
AS 90
Leaving a profit to the planter, per
acre, oi.-....-....... S72 90
The ramie leaves dry are valuable for
paper-mal<ing, and have market value
In bales for export trade.
1t Is proposed to set ND machinery in
Sacramento to work the ramie just as soon
as fifty acres are planted in this vicinity.
1t is said by gentlemen interested that all
of the land surrounding this city is well
adapted to the culture of this plant. We
present a beautiful drawing of the upper
end of mature ramie plant. On its up
per side the leaf is a rich green !; it's under
side is a snowy white, the contrast being
very noticeable. The notes are tuberous
and also have tap" or water root,
covered with rootlets. This root will ex-
tend to great depth for moisture
The deeper and richer the soil, the bet
ter the crop of fiber will be. The roots
when planted 3X3 feet, as recon-
mended by Professor E. W. Hilgard, will
spread over and cover the whole ground
thickly with stems in few years.
PROFESSOR HILGARD's REPORT.
Following is the full text of Professor
Hilgard's report:
The revival of interest in the culture of
ramie that has followed the announce
ment OF the apparently successful tests
made of a new decorticating machine at
the late Mechanics Fair, renders it de-
sirable to review some Of the main points
of this industry as bearing upon its
adaptation to California. The great
beauty of the fiber and the almost I'M
limited commercial demand for it when
brought into the market in available
form; its adaptation to a great variety of
soils and climates, the high production,
the perennial nature of the plant that
renders its culture very inexpensive;
last, but not least, the possibility of easily
maintaining the productiveness of the
soil by a return of the ''trash," plac-
ing ramie near to cotton when the
seed is returned), as bearing very lightly
on the soils native fertility; and finally
the relatively high value and light weight
of the merchantabie product when
shipped-all these advantages concur in
rendering the culture of this fiber plant
specially desirable wherever it is feasi-
bic. That it has not become more widely
spread, and has not largely superseded
the much more costly and exhaustive
culture OF flax, is mainly due to the diff
Guilty of accomplishing the separation
and cleaning of the fiber by machine
sufficiently effective to compete with the
scraping by cheap hand labor, which in
Orient is ia an ha lx
mode of supplying to commerce the
''China grass fiber.
This difficulty arises from the presence
in the bark of a tough gummy substance
that encases the fiber, and from which it
must be thoroughly freed by either me-
chanical or chemical processes, or by
both combined, before it can be worked.
Two essentially different plans have
been pursued in the effort to accomplish
this. One is the ''wet'' process, in which
Gas in the ORIENT the green stalk is oper-
ated upon, requiring appliances some
what distinct from those used in the
preparation of hemp or flax fiber. while
in the dry" process the mechanical
operations are substantially the same in
kind as the case of our familiar fiber
plants, but modified to suit "a specially
difficult case. In either mode the me-
chanical treatment has to be followed by
more or less intense chemical one, for
the removal of the last remaining green
ish gum from the silky fiber before the
latter is ready for the spinning machine
The latter, in view of the great length of
the ramie fiber, should be of the kind
adapted for line spinning, but of course
it is quite feasible to convert the fiber
into tow or short length material resem-
bling long-staple cotton. Some of the
older machines have done this, and if as
is now stated, such material can find pur-
chasers among the workers in wool and
cotton at remuneratlve prices, there is
little difficulty about its production in
large quantities. But one of the merits
OF the ramle tber-lts resemblance to silk
is thus grievously impaired, and it NAV
be fairly said that no machine or process
that does not produce the fiber in a con-
dlt1on for line-spinning can claim to have
solved the problem of making ramie as
profitable crop as it can be.
The wet processes seem to have had
the best success in the countries whose
climatic conditions involve perennially
moist atmosphere, and where a thorough
drying of the stems is therefore difficult.
The principle upon which the work is
done is, in general, the breaking of the
more or less brittle and 'brash' stems.
fresh from the field and stripped of their
leaves, by means of suitable modifi-
cation OF the ordinary breaking process
as applied to dry stems of hemp, etc.
The stemless, but undecorticated fiber,
usually rolled into bands for the better
preservation of its parallelism, is then
dried, partially or wholly by artificial
heat, so as to render the gum and bark
brittle enough to be removed by subse-
quent beating and combing.
Sometimes this mechanical after-treat-
ment has been omitted and the stemless
crude fiber passed directly into the alka-
line bath (mostly of common or caustic
soda, which is always required to remove
the last of the gummy matter, but too
prolonged action of which viii impair
the strength of the fiber. The latter is
then ready for final combing and for
spinning, with or without preliminary
bleaching.
The dry process differs from the
''wet'' in that the stalks, cut at the time
when their oldest portion is just turning
color from green to a browish tint are
first allowed to dry in the field if this can
be done, and when fully dry are at once
subjected TO the action of breaking, and
of beating or combing machines that re-
move stalk and bark with gum in pro-
portion to their perfection, leaving again,
the crude fiber more or less ready for the
1kaline bath, as in the wet process.
1t viii readily be understood that the
dry mode of working is best adapted to a
dry climate, in which the stalks and
Rummy bark become so brittle that the