SISAL HEMP 169 



The Sisal hemp or " Pita " plant has long been 

 acclimatised in the Bahamas, but was not seriously 

 regarded as worthy of systematic cultivation until 

 1888 when the Governor of the Islands took steps to 

 encourage the establishment of a local fibre industry. 

 During the next few years, several large undertakings 

 purchased extensive tracts of land and planted them 

 with the Sisal agave. The rapid growth of the in- 

 dustry is shown by the following data of the quanti- 

 ties and value of the fibre exported in certain years : 



Year. Quantity. Value. Year. Quantity. Value. 



Tons. Tons. 



1891 . 9 149 



1892 . 30 692 



1893 5 2 1,200 



79 



1895 . 242 3,987 



1897 402 4,522 



1899 . 607 16,942 



1903 i,439 38,805 



1906 . 1,726 40,140 



1909 . 2,610 48,805 



1911 . 2,979 44,855 



1912 . 3,600 66,427 



1913 3,236 69,950 



1914 . 2,502 46,685 



The whole of the fibre exported from the Bahamas 

 enters the United States. 



The production of Sisal hemp in India has not 

 assumed important dimensions, although it has 

 frequently been made a subject of commercial enter- 

 prise. The cultivation of agaves has been carried 

 on for several years on a plantation in Assam, but the 

 results have not been such as to warrant any great 

 extension of the industry. In the Coimbatore District, 

 Madras, the fibre has been extracted on a commercial 

 scale from plants growing beside the railway. Sisal 

 plantations have been established by several Euro- 

 pean undertakings in Madras, but the crop is not 

 attractive to the ryots. In the Central Provinces, 

 Agave Cantata is grown to some extent as a hedge- 

 plant, but comparatively little fibre is extracted. 

 Agaves also occur in Burma, but are not systematic- 

 ally grown for fibre. The actual amounts of Sisal 

 hemp exported from India are not known, as the 

 official returns do not class this fibre separately but 

 include it with Sunn or Bombay hemp (Crotalaria 

 juncea) under the general heading of " hemp." 



