352 



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6. '' The t^o Henequen poles produced in tlie Parade Garden 

 yielded about 7,000 plants, and these were presented to Hodges 

 and Font Hill, in St. Elizabeth, and are now established on these 

 properties. Mr. W. H. Griffiths, of Hodges, is extending his plan- 



-tation of Henequen, and reports that the suckers supplied are 



growing well. 



7. Mr. Stoddart, who w^rote a bulletin on ' Sisal Hemp ' for 

 this Department in 1886, has recently rewritten this for the 

 Journal of the Society, and holds a stock of about 100,000 plants 

 of Henequen which are available to purchasers. 



8. ** In view of the interest and importance of the matter, I made 

 :an expedition recently into St. Catherine to investigate other 

 possible sources of Henequen, and secured the services of Mr. W. 

 •Harris to assist me. We discovered Henequen plants growing 

 freely along the main road near Old Harbour and saw many also 

 growing in small holdings in this district, where they had been 

 planted to make hedges. 



9. '^ An interesting discovery was made when we called at the 

 pen of Mr. Williams, near Old Harbour, where Henequen plants 

 are a prominent feature of the frontage of the property. 



^^ It was ascertained that a relative of this gentleman, named 

 Ludford, about 60 years ago brought some Henequen plants to 

 .Jamaica from Yucatan and planted them on his property. 



** Mr. Ludford must therefore be credited with the first intro- 

 duction of Agave fourcroydes into Jamaica. 



''When Colonel Ward was planting Sisal in Vere, I am informed 

 he purchased poles of Henequen estimated to contain 20,000 

 bulbils from the stock introduced by Mr. Ludford for the sum of 

 £5 per pole. 



10. '* We also discovered that Henequen growing near the resi- 

 dence of Mr, W. Watson, at Twickenham Park, near Spanish 

 Town. Henequen has been planted on the limestone hills by the 

 late Mr, A. Crum-Ewing, probably from suckers obtained from 

 Hope Gardens. Mr. Watson has a very large run of land suitable 

 for this culture and has decided to set out his plants of Henequen 

 .on an experimental plot of 5 acres. 



11. ** The Public Works Department has been requested by His 

 Excellency to protect the Henequen plants now growing along the 

 sides of the main roads in St. Catherine and to co-operate with us 

 in securing the bulbils for planting when any of these plants pole. 



12- ^' I believe that a large and lucrative industry can'ffradually 

 be built up by the cultivation of Cauta Tree Cotton and Henequen 

 on alluvial soils and of Cotton and true Sisal on the calcareous 

 formations in dry and hot districts of the island. 

 ^: **The special value of Henequen consists in its superiority for the 

 purpose of making binder twine and the ever-growing demand for 



this material." 



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