FIBER INDUSTRIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 29 



established at Cocoanut Grove with special machinery sent down for 

 the work. With this equipment, and with a fast-sailing yacht at the 

 disposal of the special agent in charge of the experiments, a careful 

 study of the Sisal hemp plant, its fiber, and the possibility of the in- 

 dustry was made, and the results were duly published. About this 

 time the Bahaman Government became interested in the industry, 

 and with shiploads of plants, both purchased and gathered without 

 cost on the uninhabited Florida Keys, the Bahamans began the new 

 industry by setting out extensive plantations on the different islands 

 of the group. The high prices of 1890 having overstimulated pro- 

 duction in Yucatan, two or three years later there was a tremendous 

 fall in the market price of Sisal hemp, and Florida's interest in the 

 new fiber subsided, though small plantations had been attempted. In 

 the meantime, American invention having continued its efforts in the 

 construction of cleaning devices, two successful machines for pre- 

 paring the raw fiber have been produced which have, in a measure, 

 superseded the clumsy raspadore hitherto universally employed for 

 the purpose, and one of the obstacles to the production of the fiber 

 in Florida is removed. The reaction toward better prices has already 

 begun, and the future establishment of an American Sisal hemp in- 

 dustry in southern Florida is a possibility, though there are several 

 practical questions yet to be settled. 



Pineapple culture is already a flourishing industry in the Sisal 

 hemp region. A pineapple plant matures but one apple in a season, 

 and after the harvest of fruit the old leaves are of no further use to 

 the plant, and may be removed. The leaves have the same structural 

 system as the agaves — that is, they are composed of a cellular mass 

 through which the fibers extend, and when the epidermis and pulpy 

 matter are eliminated the residue is a soft, silklike filament, the value 

 of which has long been recognized. Only fifty pounds of this fiber 

 can be obtained from a ton of leaves, but, as the product would doubt- 

 less command double the price of Sisal hemp, its production would 

 be profitable. How to secure this fiber cheaply is the problem. The 

 Sisal hemp machines are too rough in action for so fine a fiber, and, 

 at the rate of ten leaves to the pound, working up a ton of the 

 material would mean the handling of over twenty thousand leaves 

 to secure perhaps three dollars' worth of the commercial product. 

 Were the fiber utilized in the arts, however, and its place estab- 

 lished, it would compete in a measure with flax as a spinning fiber, 

 for its filaments are divisible to the ten-thousandth of an inch. The 

 substance has already been utilized to a slight extent in Eastern 

 countries (being hand-prepared) in the manufacture of costly, filmy, 

 cobweblike fabrics that will almost float in air. 



Another possible fiber industry for Florida is the cultivation of 



