I 



A FORTNIGHTLY REVIEW 



NEW YORIC 



BOTANICAL 



GARDEN 



IMPERIAL DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE FOR THE WEST INDIES. 



OF THE 



Vol. III. No. 65. 



BARBADOS, OCTOBER 8, 1904. 



Price Id. 



CONTENTS. 



Banana Industry : — 



Barbados 



Costa Rica 



Bees'- wax, Indian 



Belgian Hares 



Citrus trade in Sicily ... 



Cotton Industry : — 



^L Jamaica 



^B Manuring in Egypt ... 



^K St. A^incent 



^B Sierra Leone 



^^L United States, Sea 



^^ft. Island Croj) 



^^r West Indian Cotton ... 



Department News 



Department Reports : — 



Antigua 



Grenada 



Educational ; — 

 Nature Teaching 

 St. Lucia 



Gleanings 



Ground Nuts in Gambia 

 Hawaiian Islands, Agri- 

 culture iu 



India Rubber in Bahia ... 



Page. 



... 328 

 ... 324 

 ... 329 

 ... 333 

 ... 324 



... 328 

 ... 325 

 ... 325 

 ... 329 



... 325 

 ... 325 

 ... 333 



... 3r,3 

 ... 333 



... 331 

 ... ,331 



... 332 

 323 



32ii 

 324 



Page 



Insect Notes : — 



Ants on Fruit trees 



Cotton Worm 



Mfintserrat 



Manila Hemp, Cultiva 



tion of 



Market RejKirts 

 Notes and Connnents 

 Orchard Culture, Experi 



ments in ... 

 Plant Fibies, Principal 



Commerciid 



Poultry Notes „ 



Science Notes :- - 



Bamboo, Flowering of 



Essential Oils in Plants 

 Sugar Industry : — 



Cuba 



Mauritius, Varietie.s in 



Trinidad, Cane farming 



330 

 330 

 330 



327 

 335 

 328 



... 320 



331 



.321 ; 



320 

 322 



Sweet Potatos as Stock 

 food 



The Sisal Hemp Ind\istry 

 and the West Indies 



West Africa, Develop- 

 ment of 



West Indian Products ... 



322 



330 



321 



329 

 331 



The Sisal Hemp Industry and tlie 

 West Indies. 



N regard ty soil requirements the sisal 

 hemp plant is not exacting, and there are, 

 in different parts of the West Indies, 

 considerable tracts of land which might be utilized for 



the cultivation of sisal hemp — land, too, which, on 

 account of its dry and rocky nature, is not suitable for 

 gi-owing other crops. Moreover, there appears to be 

 a considerable demand for this fibre, especially in the 

 United States, and at present, at any rate, the price 

 of sisal fibre is sufficiently high to enable it to be grown 

 very profitably. 



As the Imperial Department of Agriculture is 

 anxious to encourage the planting of sisal hemp, full 

 information as to its cultivation and preparation for 

 market has been published in tlie current issue of the 

 Wi''<f Indian Bulldin (Vol. 5, no 2). In the same 

 article a brief sketch is given of the progress of the 

 industry in the Bahamas and the Caicos Islands. 



The cultivation of this i)lant on a commercial scale 

 is carried on principally in Yucatan, the Bahamas, the 

 Caicos Islands, and Hawaii. The total exports of sisal 

 from Mexico (known there as henequen) in 1902 were 

 fS8,087 tons. From the Bahamas, in the same year, 1,042 

 tons, of the value of £37,574, were exported, while the 

 Caicos Islands exported 222 tons, of the value of 

 £7,100. In the same year 89,583 tons of sisal hemp 

 were imported into the United States. 



The sisal industry in the Bahamas has increased 

 in importance during the last eight or nine years to 

 a very considerable extent. At first, as is usual in the 

 initial stages in the establishment of such an industrj", 

 more or less serious difficulties had to be met, and 

 doubts were entertained as to the ultimate success of the 



