SISAL AND HENEQUIN 



311 



As the plants live indefinitely, one setting of a field will last 

 many years. The lower whorl of the leaves is taken at each har- 

 vest time, perhaps twelve or fifteen leaves a year being the yield 

 of a single plant. When the crop begins to blossom or go to seed 

 its strength^ is exhausted, and it will soon die. 



Articles made from sisal fibre are commonly found in the mar- 

 kets and elsewhere. So-called rope mats, binder twine, and many 



FIG. 206. 



FIG. 207. 



o ' - ; . t 



*&- s ^i -. --^- .^ 





FIG. 206. The ramie grown from perennial rootstocks, sending up two or three crops 

 of herbaceous stalk each year. It has never been cultivated profitably outside of China and 

 Japan, owing to lack of successful decorticating machines. (U. S. D. A.) 



FIG. 207. Jute is sown broadcast, like hemp, over an area of about 3,000,000 acres 

 of rich alluvial soil in India. It is sown, weeded, harvested, water-retted and fibre-cleaned 

 all by hand labor. (U. S. D. A.) 



other articles are made from it almost entirely, and the fibre, 

 which is coarser than Manila, is mixed with Manila for many 

 purposes. The name Yucatan matting is given to one of the 

 chief manufactured products, as sisal fibre is grown more abun- 

 dantly in Yucatan and the West Indies than elsewhere. A good 

 percentage of the world's product comes from the Hawaiian 

 Islands. 



