August i, 1882.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



125 



foreign consumpi ion, men and boys to bore the holes 

 in the stocks to receive the piassava, ami men, bi>ya 

 and women to make np and turn out the finished 

 article. Nor should we forget, in conclusion, the large 

 number of men employed m the metropolis, and else- 

 where, in sweeping the streets wilh these very pias- 

 sava brooms. Tlie traders in piassava may be classed 

 as agents, merchants, brokers, and dealers. The 

 dealer buys it from the presser and consigns or carries 

 it to Bahia to the agents. Merchants buy it and 

 ship it to the merchant sin England. The Englieh mercli- 

 ants employ brokers to sell it. The dealers in this 

 country buy and eell it to "bass" dressers who 

 manufacture it and sell it to the brushmakers. It 

 should here be remarked that the labour performed 

 in the cutting and bailing of the materiiil must ne- 

 cessarily be executed by natives owing to the con- 

 ditions of climate and habits of life. The improve- 

 ment in the condiiion of the natives, and the general 

 progress of civilization since the opening up of the 

 piassava trade is very marked.— Xaftojw News. 



HEMP CULTIVATION IN MEXICO. 



The hemp industry in Mexico has, within the lats 

 ten or twelve years, attained considerable proportions, 

 and one of the chief articles of trade in Yucatan 

 is the fibre extracted from the hemp plant, or 

 American aloe, commonly called by the Indian 

 name of " henequen. " Consul Lespinasee states 

 that the plant is found in profusion throughout Yu- 

 catan, and forms the nucleus whence all the present 

 hemp plantations have been formed. The hemp tracks 

 are divided into "mecate«," which is a Mexican 

 measure of twenty-four yards square. After all the shrubs 

 and weeds have been burned during the previous dry 

 season, the Indian laborers proceed to dig small pits, 

 in a straight line, from six to eight feet apart, 

 and between each line of pits, a path about nine 

 feet wide is left clear, in order to give the laborers 

 sufiicient room to cut the leaves when they have 

 attained their full growth. As soon as the required 

 quantity of land is thus laid out, the young plants 

 are cut close to the ground, and, without any pro- 

 cess, are simply placed in the pita pre- 

 pared for them, with a little loose earth, and are left 

 to take care of themselves. Each " mecoate'' contains 

 about 96 plants. 'I'wice a year the ground is cleared 

 of the underwood. As the plant grows, a stem shoots 

 out from the centre, and the leaves gradually detach 

 themselves from it in a spear-like form with sharp 

 prickles along the edges, and a strong, black, sharp 

 needle-like thorn at the point. The plant requires 

 from five to seven years to attain its full growth. 

 At the end of this p;riod, the leaves have au average 

 length of four feet. A hemp plant will flour sh from 

 ten to fifteen yeares. Each plant has about twenty- 

 six leaves during the year, sixteen in the rainy season, 

 and ten in the dry ; each leaf, four feet long, pro- 

 duces about three quarters of an ounce of fibre ; it 

 requires, therefore, from seven to eight thousand leaves 

 to make a bale, weighing four hundred pounds. As 

 soon as tbe plant has attained its full growth, the leaves 

 are cut from the trunk commencing from the 

 bottom upwards, only those being cnt which are well 

 developed. From the hemp beds they are carried 

 to the scraping machine, which consists of a strong 

 fly-wheel, on which six or eight blunt brass knives 

 are placed transversely. The leaves are placed one 

 by one on a curred lever, which js r.aised or 

 or lowered in such a manner that the knives on the 

 wheel only strike the pulp and lay bare the fibre. 

 First, one end of the leaf is presented to tho 

 wheel, and, as soon as it is scraped, the other end is 

 presented. Each time one end is introduced, the 

 other ia secured by a strong pair of iron pliers, which 



are attached to the machine. Each machine employs 

 four men, one to plnce the leaves near the machine, 

 one to attend the lever, one to introduce the leaves 

 into the machine, and the fourth to carry away the 

 Ijulp and refuse matter. As a rule, the machines 

 are worked by steam-power, and can clean about 

 four hundred pounds of fibre in one day. VVhen the 

 fibre is extracted from the leaf, it is taken to the 

 drying yard and hung on slender poles, which are 

 stretched on wooden frames about three feet from the 

 ground, and left to dry and bleach in the suu. If 

 the weather is fine, it will become dry in four or 

 five hours. While drying, the fibre loses its natural 

 greeni.sh hue, and assumes a white, glossy appearance. 

 It is then placed in hydraulic presses, and compressed 

 into bales of the required size, which generally 

 weigh three hund-ed and fifty, four hundred, and five 

 hundred pounds. The fibre is then ready for ship- 

 ment. — I'iji Times. 



EXHIBITION OF BRAZILIAN COFFEE :-IN- 

 AUGUEAL DINNER AT THE CRYSTAL PALACE. 



An incidental reference to coffee as a public beverace 

 made by the Prime Minister in his last Budget speech 

 has naturally attracted more than usual attention to 

 this subject, it is therefore at a moment especially 

 auspicious that the first exhibition of Brazilian coflfee 

 in this country is now open to view at the Crystal 

 Palace, and practical means adopted to supply the 

 English public with reliable information as to the 

 quality and other merits of this important pi-oduot of 

 the great South American Empire. It will doubtless be 

 a surprize to many to learn that the tot:d amount of 

 coffee grown in Brazil during the year 1S81 amounted 

 to about 5,0(JO,000 bags of 120 ft each, being equivalent 

 to one-half the whole estimated consumpiion of the 

 world. Of this prodigious quantity, in the same period, 

 2,241,976 bags were exported to America and 2,135,442 

 bags to Europe, England receiving 266,756 cwt. of' the 

 latter, and yet to the vast majority of people Brazilian 

 coffee is quite unknown. From its superior and delici- 

 ous flavour, it, indeed, enters into consumption as a 

 component part of many of those execrable mixtures 

 which have done so much to discredit and limit amongst 

 us the use of the arom.itic berry, but is seldom if ever 

 sold in our grocers' shops in its own name and in 

 its native purity. The " Central Association of Aari- 

 culture and Commerce of Rio ide Janeiro," under the 

 auspicesof the Imperial Brazilian Government, have — and 

 not too soon — resolved to put an end to this unsatisfactory 

 and anomalous state of things by opening exhibitions in 

 the principal cities of Europe and by otherwise popul- 

 arizing the Brazilian product by tlie diffusion of statist- 

 ical and authoritative data with respect thereto. 



It would be difficult to exaggerate the value to 

 Brazil of this new departure, and the friends of the 

 Empire arc to be sincerely congratulated on the very 

 effective display of its coffee submitted to public 

 inspection at the Crystal Palace. To Commendador 

 J. L. C. de Salles, the Consul-General for Brazil, upon 

 whom has devolved the arduous task of making all 

 the preparations foi this interesting exhibition, and 

 and who has evidently spared neither labour, thought 

 nor money to nnder it complete, the merit of 

 achieved success must be frankly awarded, and it 

 cannot be disputed that the position selected for this 

 unique display in the Crystal Palace has been well 

 and judiciously determined. 



While all the arrangements manifest a careful re- 

 gard to the practical objects in immedi.ate contem- 

 plation, artistic effects have not been neglected, and 

 the scene which strikes the eye of the spectator on 

 enteiiug the eeutral avenue of the Palace, where 

 the exhibition is located, is calculated to at once 

 arrest attention. Than this central avenue no more 



