CHAPTER XI 

 FIBRE 



Sisal hemp is being grown in several parts of 

 the Province, notably in Quelimane, where there 

 are close upon three million plants in cultiva- 

 tion. The spacing adopted is 2 by 175 metres, 

 but that most favoured in German East Africa, 

 the home of sisal-planting on the coast, is 2-30 

 by 1*50, it being found that plants do not, as a 

 matter of fact, injure one another at this dis- 

 tance (1-50), though the leaves overlap. In 

 Gennan East Africa suckers are preferred to 

 bulbils as they save a year, but in Quelimane 

 there are not yet enough suckers available. Three 

 and a half per cent, of fibre is stated to have been 

 obtained at Malinguine in 1910 ; 3 per cent, in 

 1911 ; the difference being accounted for perhaps 

 by the unusually heavy rains of 1911. 



When cutting in the plantation plants are 

 denuded of their leaves with the exception of a 

 few vertical ones in the centre w^hich have not 



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