AGAVE-FIBRES OF NETHERLANDS-EAST-INDIA. 



Distribution in Netherlands East-India. A great many different species of agave and other 

 fibre-producing plants of the same order can be found in Netheriands-East-lndia growing wild. 

 It is no wonder that the natives have for many years known the valuable properties of the fibres 

 of the leaves of these plants; they are prepared by them in the most primitive way. 



Cultivation. The fibre, obtained by the natives, is mostly short, insufficiently cleaned and 

 coloured. Owing to this the product never would have become an export-article of much impor- 

 tance had not the European planters in Neth. -East-India applied themselves to the cultivation 

 of these fibres. This change took place in the beginning of this century and the number of agave- 

 plantations rapidly increased when in the years 1903 to 1Q05 the prices were extraordinarily high, 

 but after the last mentioned year the price declined, and for that reason the planters did not 

 make the profits they anticipated and the cultivation progressed but slowly. 



There were in the beginning of 1Q11 some 37 European estates representing 15,309 acres 

 under agave cultivation in Java, of which there were to be found in: 

 East-Java 19 estates representing 9,396 acres, 



Central-Java 18 5,913 



and some 681 acres of this plant cultivated by the natives. 



