"hurds" are used for fuel in place of the best quality of bituminous coal, and the fact was demonstrated that when used under one boiler of the series, less coal was consumed under the other boilers using coal as fuel than when coal was employed for all. The machine alluded to by Mr. Heany, of Buckly, Ill., his own invention, and unpatented, he describes as follows: It consists of a very large brake with fluted rollers-flutes from 1 to 2 inches deep. The cleaning cylinders are 5 feet in diameter of any desired width, with crossbars alternating with loose wings. In the cross-bars are pins, which are used as combs, about three-quarters inch long, slightly bent back. Under the cylinders are slats 2 inches apart to let shives through. I use one cylinder close behind the brakes. The other two cylinders have each one pair of rollers in front to hold fiber while shives are being cleaned out. The fiber is not left straight. It is claimed that twine manufacturers prefer this product to straight Kentucky hemp fiber ou account of its superior strength. The capacity of the machine is not stated, nor has it been examined by the Department of Agriculture. A hemp grower in the vicinity writes the Department as follows: New machinery will be tried the present season in this section; the brake in present nise is not heavy enough, strong, heavy machinery being demanded. In fact, the demand is for a machine that will produce a good quality of fiber in large quantities at a small profit. A Kentucky machine for cleaning hemp, recently tested in Lexington, is reported upon by M. A. Scovill, director of the Kentucky Agricult ural Experiment Station. It is the invention of Mr. J. D. Shely, of Lexington. A description of its mechanism was not given. Mr. Scovill states that the machine is only a model, and has not yet been worked upon a scale large enough to prove beyond doubt that it will be a success. It is portable, and will occupy in hemp handling about the position occupied by the thrasher in wheat raising. In the trial referred to, which was witnessed by numbers of hemp growers and manufacturers, between 50 and 100 pounds of fiber was made, the estimate for a day's work, with a force of 10 men, being 8,000 pounds of hemp, at an expense of $20. The machine is not yet patented, though protected by caveats, as it is desired to further perfect it in certain directions. Mr. Scovill also states that a number of hemp manufacturers, whose opinions were solicited by him, spoke well of its operations at the trials attended by them. Since the above was written another trial of the machine has taken place. From Mr. Scovell's letter regarding it, the following extract is taken: "It is the first machine Mr. Shely has made of this pattern on a large working scale. There was only about one hundred pounds of hemp at the machine and this was run through in a very few moments. The power used was an eight-horse power threshing-machine engine, with 80 pounds pressure. While the machine was running everything went off smoothly, and it certainly did its work well. If it can be made to run so continuously I can see no reason why it should not be a success, but I would express no opinion, and will not, until the machine goes into the field and makes a day's run. I send you samples of the hurds and fiber by this mail, as they came from the machine last Friday. I selected the samples myself, and they are what I consider a fair sample of what the machine did." THE RAMIE QUESTION. What is Ramie? For the benefit of the many who may have only an imperfect knowledge of the textile, a brief description of the plant and its uses is herewith presented. Ramie is a plant belonging to the nettle family (Urticaceae), which from time immemorial has been cultivated in China, and known to botanists by the name Bohmeria nivea,1 frequently called the stingless nettle. It is also known as "China-grass," and "Rhea." It has long been cultivated, also, in Japan, in Java, Bornea, Sumatra, and in the East Indies, and during the present century has been introduced into other countries. Its introduction into the United States dates back to the year 1855.2 When fully grown the plant attains a height of 4 to 8 feet, clothed with large ovate-acuminate leaves that are green above and whitish or silvery beneath, the fiber being formed in the bark which surrounds the stalk, this having a pithy center. It is of rapid growth and produces from two to four, or even five, crops a year without replanting, dependant upon the climate where cultivated. In China and Japan, where the fiber is extracted by hand labor, it is manufactured not only into cordage, fish-lines, nets, and similar coarse manufactures, but woven into the finest and most beautiful of fabrics. In England, France, and Germany the fiber has also been woven into a great variety of fabrics, covering the widest range of uses, such as lace, lace curtains, handkerchiefs, cloth, or white goods resembling fine linen, dress goods, napkins, table damask, table-covers, bed-spreads, drapery for curtains or lambrequins, plush, and even carpets and fabrics suitable for clothing. The fiber can be dyed in all desirable shades or colors, some examples having the luster For present purposes it is assumed that but a single species of ramie is being cultivated in the United States. The writer is fully aware, however, that two or more recognized species of this plant have been under experimental cultivation in countries that are seeking to introduce the ramie industry, besides a dozen others, producing "rhea-like fibers," in eastern countries. The subject of the scientific nomenclature of ramie has been an interesting one to botanists, in the countries where the plant has been introduced, and the Department of Agriculture will institute a special investigation into the subject as it relates to our own country in the near future. The reader is referred to Appendix A, at the close of this report, for interesting statements in this connection, relating to culture in France. See report of the Commissioner of Patents, Agriculture, for 1855, p. 244. and brilliancy of silk. It is one of the strongest and most durable of fibers, is least affected by moisture of all fibers, and from these characteristics must take first rank in value as a textile substance. It has three times the strength of Russian hemp, while its filaments can be separated almost to the fineness of silk. In manufacture it has been spun on various forms of textile machinery, and also used in connection with cotton, wool, and silk, and it can be employed as a substitute in certain forms of manufacture, where elasticity is not essential, for all of these textiles, and for flax also. It likewise produces superior paper, and can be utilized in the manufacture of celluloid. In short, the uses to which it may be put are almost endless, and when the economical extraction of the fiber by machinery is successfully accomplished, it will become one of the most valuable.commercial products of the vegetable kingdom. Ramie is a plant of easy cultivation. It has been grown as far north as Pennsylvania and New Jersey, though for the production of fiber its culture succeeds best in the Southern States, and particularly those bordering the Gulf of Mexico. It also thrives well on the Pacific coast, having been grown with success experimentally in California for sev eral years. The plant is propagated by seeds, by cuttings or by layers, and by division of the roots. When produced from seed the greatest care is taken with the planting, as the seed is very small. For this reason open-air planting can hardly be relied upon, plants started in the hotbed giving the best results. After planting, the seeds are covered thinly with sifted earth and kept shaded from the sun until the young plants are 2 or 3 inches high, when sunlight is gradually admitted to them. In five or six weeks they will be strong enough to transplant to the field. In the East Indian method of propagating by cuttings of the stems, the spring-grown stems are used, and when fully ripe. Only the wellripened portion, where the epidermis has turned brown, is employed, the stem being divided into lengths that will include three buds, care being taken to cut a quarter of an inch above and the same distance below the top and bottom buds. These are planted with the central bud on a level with the soil. The cuttings are shaded for ten days or more unless the weather be cloudy or rainy. In India the cuttings are planted a foot a part, although given more room as the plants mature. By far the most practical method and the one which will give the best results in this country, is the propagation by a division of the roots of old or fully matured plants. The old plants are better than young ones for the purpose as the root, mass is larger, the tuberous portions. showing a greater number of eyes and therefore giving stronger plants after division. The practice varies as to distance apart that these are planted. In India 4 feet apart each way is considered the proper distance, though in France some favor 2 feet apart each way as giving better results.1 In a conversation with M. Favier upon this subject it was suggested by this gentleman that when it was desired to dry the cut stalks upon the ground where grown, a system of planting upon ridges should be followed which would enable the planter to lay the cut stalks from ridge to ridge in such manner that the air could circulate freely under them in the furrows, and prevent injury from dampness. In a former report on the culture of ramie issued by the Department of Agriculture these directions are given. Furrows five or six inches deep, and five feet apart are opened with the plow. The roots are laid lengthwise in the middle, close in succession if a thick standing crop is desired, but placed at intervals if nursery propagation is the object in view. The first mode will absorb 3,000 roots per acre, but will save the labor of often filling the stand by propagation. The plants are given cultivation at first, being hilled like corn or potatoes, all weeds being kept down, though after getting a good start, from the rankness of their growth and the density of the foliage, weeds will have little chance to grow. These brief directions are sufficient to enable any one to make a beginning; experience and a familiarity with the plant and its manner of growth will suggest subsequent treatment and assist the farmer in establishing the particular practice that it will be best for him to follow. Southern cultivators choose a deep, rich, light, and moist soil. Mr. Montgomery, writing on the culture of the plant in the Kangra district of India, says: A rich loam suits the plants best, but they will grow in any kind of soil, provided a full supply of moisture be available, combined with thorough drainage. If sufficient moisture cannot be assured it should be supplied by irrigation, a positive essential in many localities where ramie is grown. It must be remembered, however, that ramie will not thrive in a "wet" soil. The ground must be well prepared by plowing to the depth of ten inches, and well pulverized, and if the land is poor fertilizers must be applied to bring it up to a good state of fertility. All weeds must 1 M. Favier writes thus: "The close system of planting, which we recommend, requires for planting 1 hectare the first time about 35,000 to 40,000 plants. If obliged to purchase these even at 30 francs per thousand, many proprietors would seriously consider the question before incurring such an expense, and we advise those who wish to plant ramie to first purchase a few thousand of plants for each hectare which they may wish to devote to this purpose. By planting in the month of March one can produce by the month of October in the following year, that is, within eighteen months, or two years if the roots are left until the following March, from each stalk twenty new stems, or, we will say, an average of fourteen or fifteen, so that from 3,000 original roots planted one will have on hand, and without expense, the plants necessary for an entire hectare. Mr. Bean, a physician at Suméne (Gard), who has cultivated ramie with great success and who wrote us an interesting letter in 1880, was able to detach eighty new plants from a single original root. "Some years ago plants sold for 150 francs per thousand; to-day they are not valued at more than 20 to 30 francs, and in a year from now the price will certainly fall from 10 francs to 15 francs, while within two or three years proprietors will supply themselves, or they will courteously exchange the plants among themselves, as has become the custom to do with the native grape vines." be removed from the soil or they will sorely plague the cultivator in the first year or so until the plants have grown large. When the climate will admit of producing three crops a year, the cuttings are made at intervals of about ten or twelve weeks, the first cuttings to be made about the middle of May, dependent on the season. STATUS OF THE RAMIE INDUSTRY. In treating this subject as it relates to America, bearing in mind how much has been written, how much has been claimed, and how large a number of people are interested in it for one reason or another, I shall endeavor to confine myself to the simple statement of such recent valuable facts illustrating progress as the Department has been able to obtain. Nor will it be necessary to consider in detail the adaptability of the plant for cultivation in the United States, as the fact of its successful introduction has been fully established and the records of past experience placed before the world. It has also been demonstrated in Europe and to a partial extent in the United States that the fiber can be manufactured into a great variety of beautiful and useful fabrics for a wide range of employment in the textile economy. Between these two positions, however, forming either end of the industrial chain in the utilization of this plant as a textile product, there is an intermediate position in which ramie experts agree something has yet to be accomplished before unqualified success in the establishment of the industry can be positively assured. I refer to that stage in the "handling" of ramie between the harvesting of the stalks and the first manipulation of the "cleaned" fiber in manufacture. To those who know nothing of the story it may be briefly stated that the invention of machinery and processes for the extraction and cleaning (degumming) of ramie fiber in the last thirty years in the various countries where experiments are going on, might foot up a hundred or more, could the entire catalogue be enumerated. In spite of this vast inventive effort, ramie, up to the present time, has not been grown in any country (excepting China and Japan) save in a limited way, because no machine or process for decortication thus far has been presented that has filled all the requirements demanded of a thoroughly practical decorticator. To inventors in our own country who have been working so indefatigably for the solution of this problem, some of whom may not fully coincide with this statement, the suggestion may be made that the Department of Agriculture can only recognize such facts as have been established by actual tests, and that mere claims, though honestly made, can not be conscientiously recognized. It is to be hoped in this connection that the Department may be able at some future time, not too remote, to obtain a knowledge of the value of every American invention for the decortication of ramie, by carefully conducted competitive official trials, and we hope that |