Moreover, the retting process, which is simply steeping the cut plants in water, is a delicate operation, requiring constant watching, to say nothing of its serious inconvenience from a sanitary point of view, on account of the pestilential emanations from the retteries. Decortication by steam having been effected, the work of M. Favier ceases, and the process is carried forward by M. Fremy. The ribbons having been produced, the fiber in them has to be freed from the mucilaginous secretions. To this end, after examination in the laboratory, they are laid on metal trays, which are placed one above the other in a vertical perforated metal cylinder. When charged, this cylinder is placed within a strong iron cylinder, containing a known quantity of water, to which an alkali is added in certain proportions. Within the cylinder is a steam coil for heating the water, and, steam having been turned on, the temperature is raised to a certain point, when the cylinder is closed and made steam-tight. The process of boiling is continued under pressure until the temperature--and consequently the steam pressure--within the cylinder has attained a high degree. On the completion of this part of the process, which occupies about four hours, and upon which the success of the whole mainly depends, the cementitious matter surrounding the fiber is found to have been transformed into a substance easily dissolved. The fibrous mass is then removed to a centrifugal machine, in which it is quickly deprived of its surplus alkaline moisture, and it is then placed in a weak solution of hydrochloric acid for a short time. It is then transferred to a bath of pure cold water, in which it remains for about an hour, and it is subsequently placed for a short time in a weak acid bath, after which it is again washed in cold water, and dried for the market. Such are the processes by which China grass may become a source of profit alike to the cultivator and the spinner. A factory situate at Louviers has been acquired, where there is machinery already erected for preparing the fiber according to the processes we have described, at the rate of one ton per day. There is also machinery for spinning the fiber into yarns. These works were also visited by those gentlemen who were at the experimental works at Montrouge, and who also visited the Government laboratory in Paris, of which Professor Fremy is chief and M. Urbain _sous-chef_, and where those gentlemen explained the details of their process and made their visitors familiar with the progressive steps of their investigations.