ANOTHERNEW AND REMARKABLE TEXTILE.

Otago Witness, Issue 838, 20 December 1867, Page 15

ANOTHERNEW AND REMARKABLE TEXTILE.

(From the Scientific American.) It -will be pleasant indeed to find tho enthusiastic anticipations of M. Benito Pvoezl, of tlie eminent French naturalists, Blume, Decaisne, and others, and of Mr A. B Bacon, chairman of the Section of Agriculture, New Orleans, Academy of Science, realised in respect to the Raitm or Boehmeria tenacissima, of Java. From the nature of the case, anticipations so high must seem extravagant, and be held subject to extra hazards of disappointment," until their actual accomplishment leaves no place for conjecture. From, a communication by the last-named gentleman to the Academy, of which he is a member, we learn that at present the exotic is introduced and flourishing on a 1 large plantation in Mexico, and that the convictioa |of the naturalists who have nursed it and experimented upon it for the last 23 years, that its fibre is stronger than hemp, as fine and -white, and twice aa durable, as linen, and more productive than cotton, is so far confirmed, that, in 1865, M. Roezl exported and sold in England over SQOOlbs of the staple, at double the price of the best quality of cotton. The Ramie "belongs, like the hemp and the nettle, to the urticacea, and "was transplanted from the island of Java to the Paris Jardin dcs Plantes, by Blume, in 1844, where it "was reared in the hothouse until its introduction into the more congenial climate of Mexico by M. Roezl, former head of the Horticultural Institute of Belgium, within eleven years past. It is considered that only the middle and southern portions of our Gulf States will afford it a suitable climate, and that in that latitude it will make three or four crops a year, each equal in quantity to the most prolific of hemp. The perseverance of M. Roezl ' in domesticating the staple in the western world has been almost romantic — perliap3 we should say heroic — and richly deserves the high reward his friends anticipate for it. Having first gone to Java and spent a year in familiarising himself with the character and growth of the plant, he emigrated to Mexico with a store of its roots. On his -way to the capital, he was robbed of his treasure by the Mexican banditti, who took little benefit from their crime, and was obliged to write to his friends in Europe for a newsupply, which was at length procured through the good offices of the British navy ; but this perished on the voyage to England. Again it was attempted, and again the plants were killed. A third attempt succeeded, but the plants had to be placed under hot-house cultivation in England, to give them strength for : another great voyage. At last, in 1859, ; after six years of waiting and endeavor of ■ this kind, his plants arrived half dead, ; and with the skill of an accomplished and i scientific horticulturist he nursed them < successfully into life, and within two years • found himself the owner of a thriving • plantation. L This was but raw material, and the i/ least part of the difficulties had been , overcome. He imported from England > the most approved machinery for cleaning L flax and hemp, but it proved unsuited to the requirements of so fine a fibre. Two , years of effort in this direction were spent ■ in vain, when he fell back upon his owa . tireless resources, and in two years more r produced two implements of his own mll vention by which the stalks were con- , verted within twenty-four hours after 5 cutting, into long skeins of pure, white i and silk-like fibre, ready for spinning-.. 1 In February last, M. Roezl visited Cuba t with specimens of the results of his eleven J years' labor, which after careful examinai tion were pronounced of the first import ance by the naturalists and agriculturists of the island, who predict that it will s supplant tobacco ancf coffee as a preferl able staple for Cuba. M. Roezl takes s five crops per annum from his plantation, i the matured plant, which is perennial, at- ; taining when well looted the height of r 20 feet.