374 READINGS IN BIOLOGICAL SCIENCE 



Indies, Hawaii, and South Africa. This well-known fiber is obtained from 

 the leaves of the henneqii'm, a species of agave or "century plant" which is a 

 native of Mexico and Yucatan. Although the hennequin had been culti- 

 vated and the sisal fiber had been used by the Indians for countless cen- 

 turies, yet it was not until comparatively recently that it came into general 

 use by the white races. It is a rather coarse fiber, harsh and somewhat brittle, 

 and much inferior to hemp or Manila for cordage, especially when wet. 

 But some one discovered that it was the best of all fibers for bindertwine 

 used for tying sheaves of grain, and instantly sisal became one of the world's 

 most important and valuable fibers. Where only a few of the stiff-leaved 

 hennequin plants had been cultivated by the native farmers, vast planta- 

 tions sprang into existence. The crop increased from a few hundred to tens 

 of thousands of tons of sisal yearly. Railways were built to transport the 

 countless bales of fiber from the inland plantations to the seacoast. Tiny 

 towns that had been forgotten by the world became transformed to busy 

 important seaports. Where only an occasional sailing vessel or coasting 

 steamer had been moored beside ramshackle wharves, scores of great wall- 

 sided iron freight steamships lay alongside concrete and steel docks. Plant- 

 ers who had found it hard to make both ends meet became millionaires, 

 stupendous sums were invested in planting more and more land with henne- 

 quin and in erecting mills and factories for manufacturing sisal twine and 

 other products, and from Yucatan the hennequin industry spread to 

 Hawaii, the West Indies, South America, Egypt and the Orient. Probably 

 no other plant of industry and commerce has had such a meteoric career 

 or has risen so rapidly in importance and value as the hennequin or sisal. 



In the Philippines and the East Indies the natives weave beautiful fine 

 silky cloth from the fibers of pineapple leaves, which is also used to some 

 extent in our textile mills, while in other Oriental countries mulberry fiber 

 is an important product. The well-known raffia fiber used in art work and 

 for making baskets and hand-bags, is the fibrous bark of a palm-tree, while 

 another pahn-tree supplies the strong, pliable material used in weaving the 

 famous Panama hats. 



Even more important in some ways than are the fiber plants used for 

 cordage and textiles, are those which make it possible for us to publish 

 books, print newspapers, or write letters. Without paper we would be sadly 

 handicapped indeed. Imagine what a task it would be to write a novel such 

 as Anthony Adverse on clay tablets or to compile a dictionary by inscrib- 

 ing the letters on stone. And think of the size of the hbrary that would be 

 needed to house thousands upon thousands of clay or stone or even metal 

 volumes. For that matter, try to visualize the occupants of a crowded sub- 

 way train all carrying morning papers of baked clay or made of metal 

 sheets. And how could our post-offices ever hope to handle millions of 

 letters written on bricks? 



No one really knows what race was the first to make that epochal dis- 



