134 



THE AGPJCULTURAL ^'EWS. 



April 25, 1914. 



FIBRES. 



CULTIVATION OF SISAL, HEMP IN THE 



WEST INDIES, 



This article has been prepared as the result of the 

 discover}-, by the Department of Agriculture, Jamaica, 

 that there is a correlation between the time of 'poling' 

 of the sisal hemp plant and the lime content of the soil. 

 It would appear that the presence of lime in the soil 

 retards the time of 'poling'. This fact is of some 

 importance in regard to the cultivation of sisal hemp in 

 many of the drier West Indian islands which are entirely of 

 volcanic formation, and consequently lack lime in their soils. 



A sisal hemp industry in the West Indies was defin- 

 itely advocated in 1P04 by the Imperial Department of 

 Agriculture, and an editorial article appeared on the subject 

 in the issue of this journal for October 8, 1904. In it, refer- 

 ence was, made to the successful cultivation of the plant on a 

 commercial scale in the Caicos Islands, in Hawaii, in the 

 Bahamas, Yucatan and Mexico. Two years before a plot had 

 been established in Montserrat, and in 1904 the results of 

 the first year were published in the report on the Botanic 

 Station. The actual yield of leaves from the plot (^-acre) 

 during the first year was -5,053 lb , estimated at 20,212 ft), 

 per acre. TLe cost of cultivation of the plot came to 

 £1 4s. 3d. In the next jears report (1905 6), it is stated 

 that at the second reaping September 1905, the yield of 

 green leaves was 5,950 ft'. The cost of cultivation of the 

 plot, which was i-acre in area was, for 1905, Us. 9d. 

 The fibre was extracted from 66 ft), of leaves by maceration, 

 and weighed 2| ft). This works out at the rate of 12 cwt. 

 per acre — a yield which compares favourably with that 

 obtained in Yucatan and the Bahamas In the succeeding 

 reports on the Botanic Station no further reference is made 

 to sisal hemp experiments, and it is understood that the 

 trials were later discontinued owing to the early 'poling' of 

 the plants. It is interesting to note, that it was recorded in 

 the last report on the experiments that the soil of the Station 

 where the plot was situated contains a lower percentage 

 of lime than that in most places in the island. It is 

 a question now whether the application of lime might not 

 prolong the plant's vegetative period, thereby rendering the 

 cultivation permanently profitable. 



That the cultivation of sisal hemp at the present day 

 actually pays in the West Indies, is clearly shown by the 

 following information received by the Imperial Commissioner 

 of Agriculture from Jamaica, in reference to an area which 

 is now in bearing in a lime.stone district of that Colony. 



The oldest plants on this property are now about five 

 years old. The plants are true Ac/aiv sisalana, and the 

 fibre commands higher prices than does Henequen fibre, 

 and is in considerable demand. The present price is £30 

 per ton, but has been as low as £18 a ton. The demand 

 is largely for good reaper and binder twine fibre. Henequen 

 takes rather longer to come into bearing than sisal, but 

 bears for a longer period. Sisal, however, will continue 

 to bear for at least ten years, and then a strong root 

 sucker can always be allowed to grow up from the 

 parent root so as to take the place of the old plant when 

 this polls. No replanting is therefore necessary on account 

 of plants polling. On the estate in question plants have 

 been put in 100 to the acre, but this is believed to be too 



wide, and it is intended tc put in instead, 1,000 plants to- 

 the acre. 



On this Jamaica estate no leaves are taken off the plants 

 until they are four years old, which it will be seen is 

 a different practice to that followed in the case of the 

 Montserrat trials. The plants give from sixty to as much as 

 100 leaves a piece. After that, about twenty-five leaves are 

 taken from each plant every six months. The leaves are cut at 

 any time of year, but it is in very dry weather that th& 

 percentage of tibie is high. The filjre runs from 5 per cent, to 

 as much as 9 per cent, of the weight of the leaf, the latter in 

 very dry weather. Generally speaking, from twenty to 

 twenty-five leaves give 1 ft), of fibre, and i-ton of fibre 

 per acre per year can be safely looked for. The leaves 

 when cut are about 3 feet 6 inches to 4 feet long. They 

 are cut and tied in bundles, loaded into carts and delivered 

 to the mill, which is the best at present nn the market. 

 The makers are Finnigan Zebriske A: Co., Patterson, 

 N.J., U.S.A. The machine takes 4,000 leaves per hour 

 and cleans the leaf without any handling. One man feeds 

 in the leaves as fast as they can be handled, and one girl 

 takes off the clean fibre at the other end of the machine, 

 which is a large atfair and requires 12 to 14 h.p. to drive it. 

 The fibre is .;arried by women out to the drying yard, where 

 it is hung on lines of galvanized wire to dry and bleach. 

 After this it is baled for shipment. 



The best land for sisal in Jamaica is undoubtedly a good 

 dry limestone land — land that would be good for other crops if 

 the rainfall were heavier. But sisal land must be thoroughly 

 well drained. The writer is of opinion that there are exten- 

 sive areas of good sisal land round the south coast of Antigua 

 where the soil is not clayey; but the present state of land 

 tenure in this district might make it difficult for the big 

 capitalist to step in. 



Pievertiog to the question of 'poling' as a factor in tlie 

 cultivation of sisal hemp, particularly in the Leeward Islands, 

 it may be of interest to readers who are concerned with the 

 subject to know that certain experiments of a useful kind are 

 now in progress in Fiji (where the soil is calcareous): (1) to 

 determine the influence of severe cutting on the time of 

 poling; (2) to compare the value of bulbils with suckers; 

 and (3) to compare suckers from polled plants with those 

 from plants that have not polled. 



The results which have been obtained during 

 1912 in Fiji in connexion with the cultivation of 

 sisal hemp where abstracted in the Agricidlural Neivs for 

 March 14, 1914. from the Report of the Department 

 of Agriculture, Fiji, 1913. This information, in the light of 

 the present article, the reader will no doubt refer back to, 

 for the purpose of comparing the figures given there for yield 

 and cost of cultivation in Fiji, with those given in the present 

 article in connexion with sisal hemp growing in Montserrat 

 and Jamaica. 



It is stated in T/ce Board of Trade Journal for 

 January 8, that owing to the desire to prevent the disap- 

 pearance of the trees, a local regulation has been issued in 

 Madagascar prohibiting the gathering of fibre from the 

 Raffia palm and the Travellers' tree (Ravenalia) throughout 

 the north east coast of Madacascar during a period of three 

 years from the first October last. 



