220 CULTIVATION OF SISAL IN THE BAHAMAS 



While his land is being cleared, the planter should be getting his 

 plants ready. As usually obtained, they are fresh from the "pole," 

 and only from one to four inches in height. These are too small to 

 put out in the fields, so they are set out in beds of cave earth until they 

 get to be eight or ten inches high. When taken from these nurseries 

 their rootlets are carefully trimmed off, and they are then planted 

 every eight or nine feet in rows that are about ten feet apart. Thus 

 an acre of ground usually contains from five to six hundred plants. 

 In order to facilitate carrying the leaves out of the field, the latter is 

 divided by roads into sections of about one hundred acres each. 



After planting, it is not very long before the fields will have to be 

 weeded, and this process is said to be necessary about twice a year, 

 until the sisal plants attain a height of three or four feet, when weeding 

 is no longer needed. The most troublesome enemy of the planter, in 

 the way of weeds, is the " May-pole," as it grows very rapidly, but the 

 roots are said to die after the third cutting. In about four years the 

 sisal plant produces what are called "ripe leaves" — that is, leaves that 

 are horizontal and large enough to cut. The cares of the cultivator 

 are now about over, and all he has to do is to cut off the leaves as fast 

 as they mature, and manufacture his fiber. 



The cultivation of sisal is of such recent introduction into the Ba- 

 hamas that as yet none of the large plantations have begun to pro- 

 duce to any extent; so for a description of the next stages we will turn 

 to Yucatan, where, as has been said, the industry has been carried on 

 from time immemorial. There the men cut the leaves off close to the 

 trunk, and lay them tip to butt in bundles of fifty, when they are carted 

 to the machines. The cutting of thirty bundles, or fifteen hundred 

 leaves, is considered a good day's work. In order to save the cost of 

 transportation, as the leaves yield but about five per cent of fiber, 

 there is usually a machine to every one hundred acres. The machine 

 now in use consists of a horizontal wheel, on the face of which brass 

 strips are transversely placed, forming dull knives. The leaf is intro- 

 duced so as to bring one side in contact with the revolving wheel, 

 which is run by a small engine. A brake then presses the leaf against 

 the scrapers, while the butt is firmly held by a pair of pincers. The 

 scrapers remove the outer surface and some of the soft tissue; then the 

 leaf is taken out and turned, and the other side undergoes the same 

 operation, until only the fibers are left. These are then shaken out and 



