606 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Human history does not confirm this. On the other hand, it 

 supports the assertion that if the enforcement is strong and con- 

 tinuous, the probability is that the enforced one's opinion will 

 eventually coincide with it. With several volumes of standard 

 reference books close at hand, I calmly await the vehement chorus 

 of dissent from this proposition. 



CULTIVATION OF SISAL IN THE BAHAMAS. 



By JOHN I. NORTHROP, 



OF COLUMBIA COLLEGE. 



" A RE you interested in sisal ? What do you think of it ? " 

 -^- These were the questions addressed to the writer almost 

 before he had landed in the Bahamas. The object of the writer's 

 visit to the " land of the pink pearl " was to make a collection of 

 its plants and animals ; but, during the pleasant six months occu- 

 pied in so doing, he had many opportunities of observing the cul- 

 tivation of the " sisal hemp." This industry is now in its infancy 

 in the Bahamas, but, if the present prospects are realized, it will 

 before long bring to the islands both wealth and prosperity. Since 

 his return the writer has found that most of those to whom he 

 has spoken of sisal had at best but a vague idea of the fiber or of 

 the plant that produces it, so it was thought that some notes on 

 the subject might prove of interest. 



The group of coral islands known as the Bahamas lies east of 

 southern Florida and north of Cuba. One of the islands, New 

 Providence, is well known to those who, in search of health or 

 recreation, have been to Nassau and enjoyed its lovely winter cli- 

 mate. But the " out islands," as the remaining ones are locally 

 termed, are seldom visited, even by those who live in Nassau. 

 The largest of these " out islands " is Andros, which is about the 

 size of Long Island, New York ; there, as in all the others of the 

 group, except New Providence, the population is almost entirely 

 composed of negroes, only seven white men living on the island ; 

 and of these, four are interested in the production of the fiber 

 known as sisal hemp. 



The term " fiber " is used commercially to designate the ma- 

 terial obtained from the leaves or stems of many different plants. 

 Hemp, on the contrary, refers to the product of a single plant, 

 known botanically as Cannabis sativa, and belonging to the same 

 order as our hop. But in speaking of fibers the word " hemp " is 

 often added, and thus we hear of " sisal hemp/' or, as it is some- 

 times called, " sisal grass," or even manila. The latter term, how- 

 ever, is properly restricted to the fiber obtained from a species 



