MONDAY, JUNE 29. AFTERNOON SESSION, 



5 P.M. 



Chairman: Monsieur E. BAILLAUD, Secretary-General of 

 the Colonial Institute, Marseilles, Vice -President of 

 the Congress. 



THE FIBRE INDUSTRIES OF BRITISH EAST AFRICA. 



By A. WlGGLESWORTH. 



[ABSTRACT.] 



THE discovery of large areas of Sansevieria ehrenbergii in 

 British East Africa first drew the attention of pioneers to the 

 possibility of developing a fibre industry in that country. 

 Concessions were granted by the Government authorizing 

 the cutting of this plant, notably in the Voi district, and 

 machinery was installed to automatically crush and clean the 

 leaf. A merchantable fibre was obtained and was sold at prices 

 under those ruling for sisal. 



Having witnessed the success of the sisal plantations in 

 German East Africa, Mr. Campbell B. Hausberg, backed by 

 Messrs. Swift and Rutherfoord, in November, 1907, conceived 

 the idea of planting sisal (Agave sisalana) in the uplands on 

 the rich lava-covered plateau in the Thika district. He 

 ploughed, cross-ploughed, and cultivated this land with oxen, 

 and planted bulbils obtained from German East Africa. At 

 first these were spaced 7 ft. by 7 ft., but gradually wider until 

 8 ft. by 8 ft. (say 650 plants per acre) became the established 

 practice. The plants grew well and were ready for cutting 

 in two and a half years. Several cuts, representing about 160 

 leaves in all, were taken during the following two to two and 

 a half years, yielding during the life of the plant a total of 

 three tons of dry fibre per acre. An automatic decorticator 

 of Messrs. Krupp's make was installed by October, 1911, 

 driven by a 70-!. h. p. suction-gas plant, turning out two tons 



