see 
. and its operation shown at the Industrial Exhibition in oe island 
BOTANICAL INFORMATION. 25 
island have witnessed its operations, and they declare that its simplicity 
of action, the ease with which it can be worked, the impossibility of its 
going wrong and injuring the fibre, and its extreme cheapness, are sur- 
prising. A piece-of the stem of the plant is held by one end in the 
hand, passed into the machine through the “ feeder," and, being still 
held in the hand, is drawn out again perfectly clean and white. It can 
be worked either by the hand, by a mule, by water, wind, or steam 
power, according to its size. To work it requires no skill; a little boy 
or girl to “feed ” it, is all that is requisite to ensure its satisfactory 
operation. The fibre cleaned in the course of the day is ready for ship- 
ment the same evening. A small machine to be worked by the hand, 
which will cost little more than three guineas, irrespective of any 
patent right, will, with the assistance of a little boy or girl to feed it, 
clean about 150 Ibs. per day, and is so portable, being contained in a 
box about eighteen inches square, that it can be taken to the spot 
where the Plantains grow; they may be cut down, prepared, and the . 
fibre carried home in the evening, ready for shipment. It can also be 
made on any scale—large enough to clean a ton a day if requisite. So 
small is the waste, that from 75 to 80 per cent. by weight of prepared 
fibre is procured from the plant, irrespective of its watery particles. 
And this waste substance is a valuable pulp, which requires only to be 
washed to fit it for manufacture into the finest writing-paper. The 
pulp alone, it is reckoned, will pay the cost of working, and the fibre will 
be net profit. z 
* Mr. Burke, whose indefatigable experiments and researches i E 
the nature of West Indian fibres, and the best mode of preparing then 
for the manufacturers! use, seem to be now crowned with success, has 
determined, so soon as the accident from which he is now suffering 
(which we mentioned a couple of weeks since) permits, on going to - 
England to procure a patent. He also intends to apply for patents in - 
each of these Colonies. We learn that the machine will be exhibited - 
(Antigua) next month. 
** We omitted to state that the Dagger (the Aloe), and all the fibrous a 
tribes of the West Indies, are as readily and as pe. acted 1 ys as i 
the Plantain." i^ 
VOL, VII. 
