of cleaned dried fibre each day of eight or nine hours. The 

 fibre is carefully washed after decortication to remove the 

 acrid juices, then dried on lines in the sun, after which it is 

 graded into Prime and Good qualities, each long and short, 

 and compressed to about 80 qubic feet to the ton in a Bijoli 

 baling press. It is then carted to Thika, railed to Mombasa, 

 and shipped to the consuming markets. The quality is as 

 good as can be produced and is an improvement on that of 

 Mexico, the original home of the sisal industry. 



The cultivation of sisal in this area being an assured success, 

 planting is steadily progressing, and a large increase of pro- 

 duction may be looked for. The conditions of climate, soil, 

 and labour are highly favourable and enable the planters to 

 produce sisal at a lower cost than in any other country. 



Sisal planting on coral soil is extending along the coast line. 

 Here the conditions are very different. Cultivation by 

 machinery is debarred owing to the absence of draught animals 

 in this tsetse-fly belt. Consequently native methods of culti- 

 vation are adopted, the land being prepared by the rude native 

 "jembie" (hoe). The nature of the soil precludes planting 

 with the same regularity as in the rich volcanic upland soil, 

 against which the coast plants are spaced closer, ranging up 

 to 1,000 or 1,200 per acre. The growth of the plant is less 

 luxuriant, and there is less pulp in the leaf. The out-turn of 

 fibre appears to be rather less per acre than in the uplands. 

 The same machinery is installed here, but on one plantation 

 a machine of British origin, made by Messrs. Robey and Co., 

 Ltd., is giving good results. 



Methods vary in different sisal-producing countries. A 

 study of the practice in Mexico and Java reveals the advan- 

 tages enjoyed by planters in East Africa, and contributes to 

 the conclusion that, provided an adequate labour supply be 

 ensured, the industry must become the most important of East 

 Africa because of the unrivalled conditions, viz.: 



(1) Unequalled climate, 



(2) Fertility of soil, 



(3) Cheap native labour, 



(4) Low-priced land, 



contributing to a low initial cost when compared with the 

 average selling price of the last ten years (33 per ton). 



The world's total consumption of hard fibres, which com- 

 prise Manila, sisal, amd New Zealand hemps, used mostly for 

 rope and binder twine, is 360,000 tons per annum, and it is 

 increasing at the average rate of 4j per cent, per annum. If 

 excessive quantities of sisal be suddenly thrown on the market 

 without any curtailment of production elsewhere, a fall ir> 

 price may take place, but the cheapest producer must of 



