CULTIVATION OF SISAL IN THE BAHAMAS 1 

 By John I. Northrop 



"Are you interested in sisal? What do you think of it?" These 

 were the questions addressed to the writer almost before he had landed 

 in the Bahamas. The object of the writer's visit to the "land of the 

 pink pearl" was to make a collection of its plants and animals; but, 

 during the pleasant six months occupied in so doing, he had many 

 opportunities of observing the cultivation of the "sisal hemp." This 

 industry is now in its infancy in the Bahamas, but, if the present pros- 

 pects are realized, it will before long bring to the islands both wealth 

 and prosperity. Since his return the writer has found that most of 

 those to whom he has spoken of sisal had at best but a vague idea of 

 the fiber or of the plant that produces it, so it was thought that some 

 notes on the subject might prove of interest. 



The group of coral islands known as the Bahamas lies east of 

 southern Florida and north of Cuba. One of the islands, New Provi- 

 dence, is well known to those who, in search of health or recreation, 

 have been to Nassau and enjoyed its lovely winter climate. But the 

 "out islands," as the remaining ones are locally termed, are seldom 

 visited, even by those who live in Nassau. The largest of these "out 

 islands" is Andros, which is about the size of Long Island, New York; 

 there, as in all the others of the group, except New Providence, the 

 population is almost entirely composed of negroes, only seven white 

 men living on the island; and of these, four are interested in the 

 production of the fiber known as sisal hemp. 



The term "fiber" is used commercially to designate the material 

 obtained from the leaves or stems of many different plants. Hemp, 

 on the contrary, refers to the product of a single plant, known botani- 

 cally as Cannabis sativa, and belonging to the same order as our hop. 

 But in speaking of fibers the word "hemp" is often added, and thus 

 we hear of "sisal hemp," or, as it is sometimes called, "sisal grass," 



1 Popular Science Monthly, March, 1891. 



