The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1892-10-29
FARMER AND PLANTER.
RAMIE A SUCCESS.
The South Can Grow Several Crops of 1t
Yearly.


The South Can Grow Several Crops of 1t
Yearly.
1t appears from samples of manufac-
tured ramie just shown here that at
last this fiber has been SO developed as
to make its use in textile goods entire
ly practicable. This industry Is the
latest and promises to be one of the
most successful of those which have
sprung into being and gone on to pros
perity under the stimulating influence
of existing conditions. Ramie has been
treatment, in China and the east for
centuries, and its cultivation was recon-
mended by the directors of the East
India Co. in 1924. 1t has recently been
made into more o. less valuable yarn
by secret processes in Germany, France
and England. Several hundred thou
sand dollars have been sunk in efforts
TO develop in this country method of
treatment for it which would be COM
mercially practicable. Heretofore these
investments have all resulted in failure,
until many of it's most enthusiastic
champions doubled the possibility of
manufacturing it successfully.
In spite of failure and prejudice, the
enormous inducement held out by the
protective system to any industry which
could be maintained on raw material
grown in this country, and could turn
out product that would compete with
the imported flax and silk. has kept in
ventors busy attempting solution of
the difficulties encountered One of
these investiga tors came to the conclu-
sion year or SO ago that the whole
trouble lay in the separation of the
natural gum from the fiber. When
the gum was extracted from the fiber
by the usual process its strength was
taken out of it. When the ordinary
process was stopped at a point which
left the stength in the fiber, so much
gum remained with it that it would not
take up the dye after being spun into
yarn. This inventor therefore devoted
his energies to the discovery of process
which would not rot the fiber. He
found that treatment with an alkaline
solution containing saponine would eff
feet this result. This was the key to
the greatest difficulty. When the prac-
teal part of spinning the fiber into
yarn was taken up it was found
that the threads had become so
charged with electricity that they
would not lie side by side. Some care
full experimenting removed this trouble
also, and hundreds of pounds of the
quality OF yarn already described,
worked up into samples of all kinds re-
suited from three or four months work
In the southern states two or three
crops of ramie will grow in one season,
and the land does not need replanting
for several years. The fiber occurs be-
tween the bark and the woody portion
of the stalk, and is longer and more
uniform than all the others except silk
1t is more solid, has more tensile
strength, more resistance to twisting
strain and more elasticity than linen or
hemp, and even cotton, though the lat
ter can be more readily twisted. 1t is
inferior only to silk.
From its single or mixed fibers may
be woven all kinds of stuffs, from the
finest to the coarsest. Mixed with wool
and silk, ramie can be made into mag
nificent furnishing materials Imita-
ton satins, trimmings and table linen
can also be made from it-N. Y. Cor
Boston Advertiser.