FIBRE-YIELDING PLANTS. 83 



" To cure vanilla-beans gather when full : steep for about two 

 minutes in boiling water and place in flannel to dry in the sun. 

 When perfectly dry, place them the next day on plates of iron 

 or tin, anointing once or twice with sweet oil, to keep them soft 

 and plump. Complete the curing process by exposing them 

 carefully in the sun for several days. When quite cured they 

 should have a uniformly rich brown colour, and the full frag- 

 rance of this valuable product/' 



Of plants yielding fibre there are two, natives of British 

 Honduras, which are cultivated to a great extent in other 

 countries, and in no country more successfully than in the 

 Mexican State of Yucatan, on the northern frontier. The first 

 of these fibre-plants is the pita, or silk grass (Bromelia pita\ 

 abundant in the forests in the west, where it covers extensive 

 tracts of country. The other plant is the sisal hemp, or henequin 

 (Agave ixtli), the fibre of which is exported from Yucatan to the 

 annual value of 100,000. 



Both these plants might be 'cultivated on the land in the 

 northern territory, and Corosal might become the centre of 

 a large fibre industry. A henequin plantation might be 

 established even in dry, poor soils, unsuited for anything else, 

 and bring a large return on the outlay. The Agave is easily 

 propagated by root-suckers, which are removed from the parent 

 plant when about 18 inches high. They take about five or six 

 years to mature, and after that period the leaves may be cut 

 twice a year for twenty years, each cutting yielding about 

 fifteen leaves per plant. The preparation of the fibre is 

 accomplished by means of a very simple machine obtained 

 from the United States, which removes the pulp and cleans the 

 fibre at the rate of one leaf per minute. After passing through 

 the machine the fibre is simply dried in the sun, and then 

 baled ready for shipment. The Textile Record (American) states 



