FIimE 100 



for the production of sisal hemp was demon- 

 strated by a remarkable report on a sample from 

 Malinguine sent to Messrs. Gray, Dawes & Co., 

 of Great Winchester Street, London, in 1911, 

 for the opinion of their brokers. It stated that 

 " This is the finest specimen of sisal hemp for 

 length and strength and colour we have ever 

 seen." On the red soils of Inhambane I saw 

 equally good plants ; in one plantation of 70,000 

 the four-year-old plants were 7 feet high. The 

 district of Lourenzo Marques, taking it through, 

 is, I think, outside the sisal belt, but there are 

 certain parts on river-banks where it is growing 

 well. 



One fundamental condition for the success of 

 a fibre plantation is a river or a lake, though 

 preferably a river, and in a country that abounds 

 with rivers there need be no difiRculty about 

 that. I visited one factory where there was no 

 stream or lagoon. Water for the boiler and 

 tanks was being carried on the heads of women 

 from a small stream that flowed through another 

 man's land some distance below, and the pulp 

 instead of being washed away by running water 

 as it fell from the decorticators was being 

 removed in buckets. 



Mauritius hemp {Fourcroya gigantea) is being 



