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Abstract
Excerpts: Within the last few years the Agricultural Department has taken much interest in the subject of ramie and jute, the seeds of which were originally introduced by it into the country and extensively distributed in the Southern States. The effect of this has been to make the impression that the cultivation of these plants is about to become one of the most important industries, and especially valuable because it will give a profitable employment to the planters and lands of a portion of the country where a larger production of cotton so lessens the price as to make any new production desirable. Experiments lately made in the State of Louisiana in the cultivation and preparation of both ramie and jute seem to settle the question that it is both practicable and profitable. The Department has sought to gather all the information which can be gained on the subject; and, at its instance, a treatise has been prepared by Emile Lefranc, of the "Southern Ramie-Planting Association," whose experience, both in the cultivation of these plants and preparation of their fibers, enables him to speak confidently of the success that company has met with. Although it is the purpose of the Department to publish this in formation, with plates and drawings of the machinery used, in the forthcoming annual report, yet the Commissioner deems its earlier publication so important, in anticipation of the approaching planting season in the Southern States, that he takes this mode of putting it into the possession of planters who may be disposed to prosecute this industry.