RAMIE, RHEA, or CHINA GRASS, Bathmeria tenacissima and B. nivea. Shrubs, five to eight feet high, producing in the bark of their stalks or stems a bast fibre. Technically ramie and rhea are derived from tem:cis:ma and China grass from nivea. This distinction has never been regarded, however, in the economic literature of the subject, the term ramie being commonly used to designate all Brehmeria fibre, China grass being either a synonym or the trade name of the Chinese fibre as imported. In the statements which fol low, therefore, ramie and China grass may be considered as synonymous terms, referring to the fibres of both saacies, as :they are arac-i tically identical from the Standpoint of cont-f martial utility, and as regards culture, prepara tion and manufacture. • • .
The fibre is strong and durable, is least affected by moisture of all fibres and takes first rank as a textile substance. It is adapted to the widest range of uses of any known textile. It has been made into stuff goods for ,men's wear, ladies' dress goods, upholstery, curtains, laces and embroideries. The pile of velvets and plushes, stockings, underclothing and knit goods, table damask, napkins, handkerchiefs,. shirtings, sheetings,' sail duck, carpets, cordage,' fishing nets and yarns and threads' of all de scriptions, and it •makes a superior bank-note paper. It is also used to adulterate silk and for ;imitation silk goods. The plant has .been the subject • of experiment in nearly every country in the world, and probably millions of .dollars have been spent or wasted, in attempts to ex ploit the industry, or in the construction 'of machines to extract the fibre. Yet the fact re mains that the commercial fibre is produced only in China and by rudest methods.
Japan coming the nearest to establishing a com mercial industry for the production of export fibre. Ramie is neither grown nor to any ex tent manufactured•in the United States, though its culture was experimented with for years, and inventors and textile manufacturers have struggled with thg machine problem and with the after preparation and the spinning of ,the fibre. As far as this country is concerned the fact that the Chinese fibre can be laid down in San Francisco for about four cents a pound condenses the entire ramie situation into a nut shell. Cultivation in this country would not pay at such prices, and there is not a machine in existence that could produce enougb marketable fibre in a day to pay for the cost of running. the machines when American •wages are considered.
Ramie manufactures have been on the market for years, derived from European sources, and made from raw fibre produced in China. And many manufactures made in whole, on part, from, ramie awe sold as some thing else, because the fibre is unknown to the public, or because it is used; as an adulterant, as in silk 'fabrics. See Cauca; Ccsumos; FORK; Hui P.
Consult on Rhea Fibers (Watson 1875) ; Bulletin Royal Kew Gardens; Dictionary Economic Products of. India; Reports (1, 2 and 7) Office of Fibre Investigations, Department of Agriculture; also the French 'publications' of Fasier, De Landtsheer, Mic.hatte, Roux, Ringleinarm, and the ramie literature publiehed by the Ministry of Agriculture of France.