BUREAU OF PLANT INDUSTRY. 161 



NEW CROP PLANTS AND CROP EXTENSION. 



' FIBER FOR BINDER TWINE. 



Manila maguey, Agave cantala, has been growing in the Philip- 

 pines many years, and sisal, Agave slsalana, has been introduced 

 into those islands since the American occupation. The cultivation 

 of these plants has been confined chiefly to areas near the coast, 

 where the leaves could be soaked in sea water to soften the pulp and 

 facilitate cleaning the fiber by hand. Cantala, or Manila maguey, 

 was produced more extensively because the plants were more easily 

 obtained and this fiber was more easily cleaned by hand. More than 

 14,000 tons of this hand-cleaned fiber were exported from the Philip- 

 pines during the calendar year 1917. Its value for use in binder 

 twine is greatly impaired because the salt from the sea water in 

 which the leaves are soaked attracts crickets and grasshoppers, 

 which destroy the bands while the bundles of grain are standing in 

 the field. 



Work carried on in cooperation with the Philippine Bureau of 

 Agriculture during the year resulted in the introduction of the first 

 really efficient machines for cleaning these fibers in the Philippines. 

 One machine, with complete equipment, has been installed in Cebu, 

 and another in Ilocos Sur, where the plants are most abundant. 

 Both machines are doing good work. A third complete outfit has 

 been ordered. The fiber growers in Cebu have formed an organiza- 

 tion for the production of machine-cleaned fiber. 



It is found that sisal is not only superior to maguey, as was well 

 known before by manufacturers in this country, but that it is cleaned 

 to better advantage by machines. Larger proportions of sisal are 

 therefore being planted. A second introduction of a half million 

 sisal plants from Hawaii has been secured. The use of machines 

 for cleaning the fiber will permit the planting of sisal over large 

 areas suited to its growth away from the coast. 



Plantations for supplying leaves for the machines are being 

 planned on a larger scale, and better methods for planting, culti- 

 vating, and harvesting are being practiced. 



The work is now started under most favorable conditions for the 

 development of sisal production on a large scale in the Philippines. 



Work on the development of improved strains of sisal and hene- 

 quen by methods of selection is being continued on an increasing 

 scale in Porto Eico. Trial plantings of sisal and henequen have 

 been made in the dry lands near Quebradillas, in northwestern Porto 

 Rico, and also on Mona Island, where several thousand acres of un- 

 used land are apparently adapted to the production of these fiber 

 crops. Propagating stock of these plants has also been furnished for 

 experimental planting in Central and South America, with the hope 

 of developing new centers of production that may become available 

 as the increasing demand for binder-twine fibers exceeds the supplies 

 from Yucatan. 



HEMP-FIBER PRODUCTION. 



The selection of hemp for securing and maintaining improved 

 strains is being continued. Seeds of the strains that have been dem- 

 onstrated to be of superior value are sent to growers who raise the 

 seed commercially. This method has been followed during the last 



