BUREAU OF PLANT INDUSTRY. 175 



tion the desirable characteristics of Pima and Sakellaridis, the latter 

 being the finest variety groAvn in Egypt and the principal compet- 

 itor of Pima in the long-staple cotton markets. The hybrids thus 

 far obtained are uniform and possess desirable fiber properties but 

 show the marked lack of fruitfulness which characterizes the Sakel- 

 laridis variety when groAvn in Arizona. 



FIBER PLANTS. 



In the work of fiber-plant investigations emphasis has been placed 

 on the future production of fibers for binder twine, the maintenance 

 of supply and improvement in quality of abaca (Manila hemp), 

 and the improvement of varieties of flax and hemp. 



Bimler-t'wine -fibers. — The cooperative work with the Philippine 

 Bureau of Agriculture to encourage the production of machine- 

 cleaned sisal and cantala fiber in the Philippine Islands is resulting 

 in a steadily increasing production of these fibers. 



The machine-cleaning demonstrations conducted during 1918 and 

 1919 witli Government-owned' machines were followed by the estab- 

 lishment of machine cleaning on a commercial basis. During the 

 calendar year 1920 the Philippines produced 707 bales of machine- 

 cleaned fiber; during 1921 the production amounted to 5,138 bales; 

 and during 1922 the production has been in excess of 1,000 bales per 

 month. With the maintenance of the present, rate of production 

 the Philippines during the calendar year 1922 will produce approxi- 

 mently 4,000,000 pounds of machine-cleaned binder-twine fiber, or 

 a supply sufficient to provide binder twine for 2,000,000 acres of grain 

 crops. 



The quality of the Philippine machine-cleaned fiber, which was un- 

 satisfactory when machine cleaning was first established in the 

 islands, is now showing a marked improvement. The production 

 of the two highest grades of cantaht fiber, grade "A" and grade 

 " B," has increased from 37 per cent of the total during the first six 

 months of 1921 to 76 per cent during the first five months of 1922. 

 Philippine machine-cleaned cantala and sisal fiber is now regarded 

 by the Government inspectors in Manila as superior to the average 

 Mexican current sisal. 



The gradual substitution of sisal for cantala in those districts 

 of the Philippine Islands where climatic and soil conditions are 

 adapted to sisal has been recommended by this bureau. In earlier 

 years sisal plants were imported into the Philippines from the 

 Hawaiian Islands ; during 1920 the Department of Agriculture fiber- 

 cleaning machine was placed in a sisal-producing district of the 

 island of Siquijor: and in October, 1921, the Philippine Bureau of 

 Agriculture officially recognized machine-cleaned sisal as a fiber 

 separate and distinct from cantala. Sisal has now obtained a fairly 

 substantial foothold in the Philippine Islands, and the average 

 monthly production of machine-cleaned sisal has increased from 32 

 bales in 1921 to 120 bales during the first five months of 1922.^ 



The unsettled industrial and political conditions in Yucatan 

 together with the marked reduction in the production of henequen 

 fiber there serve to emphasize the advisability of encouraging in 

 every way possible a continued increase in the production of binder- 

 twine fiber within our own territory. 



