Ramie requires a fertile soil, not subject to drought, but with good drainage. It grows well on sandy loam or alluvial soils, but can not be grown successfully either on stiff clay or light sandy soils. It requires a warm moist climate during the growing season.
The plant is propagated by seeds and by root cuttings, and in India to some extent by cuttings of the stems. Transplanting root-cuttings is the surest method, but growing from seeds, if carefully attended to, gives a larger number of plants for the same labor. The seed is very small, like tobacco seed. It is germinated in glass-covered flats in greenhouses, or in warm weather out-of-doors in beds inclosed with boards and muslin or canvas cover which is frequently sprinkled. The seeds are sown on the surface, pressed down, but not covered, and they require a warm moist atmosphere for ger mination. When about an inch high the seedlings must be gradually accustomed to drier air, to pre vent damping off. When eight to twelve inches high, and after several days' exposure to outdoor conditions, they may be transplanted to the field. The seedlings are set in rows about twenty-four inches apart, and about ten inches apart in the row. If root-cuttings are used instead of seedlings they may be transplanted directly to the field, in rows the same distance apart. In either case, the space between the rows must be cultivated until the ramie is high enough to shade the ground.
Seedlings or roots set out in May or early June should yield the first crop of shoots about the last of August. Afterward two to four crops should be produced each season. As the plants grow more thickly after the first crop, there will be fewer branching stalks and an increased yield. On rich soil, the fertility of which is kept up by the appli cation of barnyard manure, the plants will con tinue to yield shoots for twenty years or longer. Where the winters are cold enough to freeze the ground to a depth of three inches, or to the tops of the roots, the land should be mulched every fall.
The shoots are harvested when they begin to produce flowers (Fig. 394). The stalks are cut or
broken by hand. In some parts of China the indi vidual stalks are cut as they reach maturity, the younger stalks being left to develop and the har vest being thus practically continuous in the same field. In some places the plants are allowed to dry and are afterward soaked in water before prepar ing the fiber, but usually the bark, including the fiber, is peeled off immediately after the stalk is cut. It is then cleaned while still fresh by draw ing it between a wooden or bone knife and a bam boo thimble, which removes the outer bark and most of the green coloring matter, after which it is dried. This hand-cleaned but not degummed fiber is known commercially as "ramie ribbons" or "China grass." In China, after more or less manip ulation to subdivide it, it is spun and woven by hand, being used very extensively for summer clothing. It is exported to Europe where it is degummed, bleached, and combed, making a fine silky filasse for spinning.
Ramie yields two to four cuttings each year after the first, and at each cutting four to eight tons per acre of green stalks from which the leaves have been stripped. The yield of dry ramie ribbons is about eighty pounds per ton of green stalks. These ribbons are quoted in European markets at four to eight dollars per hundredweight. There is a wide variation in quality, the best coming from Formosa.
Practically no market for ramie fiber has been established in the United States, and few ramie goods, sold as ramie, are made in this country. It is used extensively for dress goods in China, Japan and Korea, and in Europe its use is increasing for portieres, upholstered furniture, clothing and various other kinds of woven and knit goods, but thus far, excepting the knit ramie underwear made in Europe, ramie goods are little known in the United States.
Rhea(BThmeria tenaeissima), also called ramie, is cultivated to a small extent in India and the East India islands. It differs from B. nivea in hav ing leaves green on both surfaces, and in requiring a more tropical climate.
Aramina. (F i g .