America's Crop Heritage


ized the Southern Ramie Planting Association to promote their
interests. In 1868, the Commissioner of Agriculture imported from
Paris seed of two other varieties of Boehmeria for experiment-
but many of the small, easily damaged seeds failed to germinate.
Ramie was reported in 1869 to be growing in extensive plantations
throughout the South.
 TABLE 3
DISTRIBUTION OF TEXTILES AND CEREAL SEEDS BY THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT 1868-89

 Year Cereals Textiles t Year Cereals Textiles t
 No. of No. of No. of No. of
 packages packages packages packages
1868....... 31,220 10,498 1879...... 100,068 2,516
1869....... 46,763 5,676 1880......................... ...
1870....... 38,701 744 1881...... 216,157 31,590
1871....... 61,204 1,638 1882...... 290,862 31,144
1872....... 86,014 1,133 1883...... 102,267 23,828
1873....... 149,696 2,612 1884...... 100,456 587
1874....... 112,562 2,367 1885...... 59,585 36,103
1875....... 137,468 5,551 1886...... 38,858 7,626
1876....... 156,493 1,357 1887...... 21,203 3,769
1877 ....... 132,181 6,118 1888...... 17,862 6,219
1878....... 112,026 816

 Includes varieties of wheats, corn, oats, rye, and barley.
 f Cotton, hemp, flax, jute, and ramie.

 Despite the successful cultivation of the crop, ramie did not
become important commercially. No one was able to perfect a
machine that would do a thorough job of separating the fibers
from the stalks and bark. Finally, the interest in ramie died out
during the 1890's and the crop was practically abandoned. In
the 1940's, several thousand acres of ramie were cultivated, and
there were reports of new machinery capable of separating the
fibers efficiently. (3)
 COTTON
 The growth of the cotton industry in the South awaited the
invention of an efficient machine for processing the fiber. Eli
Whitney's cotton gin made it possible for growers to expand their
acreages and compete successfully with foreign suppliers. Agri-
culturists hailed the profitable cultivation of this crop, in compe-
tition with cheap foreign labor, as an example of what might be
done by machinery in other crop industries.
 Many introductions were made by individuals, and the Depart-
 ment of Agriculture tried to find foreign varieties superior to