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The World's Commercial Products 



Photo by Chas. Abeniacar 



GATHERING HEMP 



then dies, is cultivated in 

 Mexico, where it is known 

 as " Maguey," while the fibre 

 yielded by it is described 

 under the native name of 

 " pita." 



Istle, or Mexican Fibre, is 

 yielded by five or six species 

 of plants growing on the 

 arid tablelands of northern 

 Mexico, but the greater part 

 of the fibre is obtained from 

 the leaves of Agave hetera- 

 cantha. Istle is employed 

 in the manufacture of the 

 cheaper grades of cordage. 



Phormium Fibre 



Phormium fibre, often in- 

 correctly known as New 

 Zealand Flax or Hemp, is 

 obtained from the leaves of 

 Phormium tenax, a plant 

 belonging to the Lily family 

 (Liliaceae) , and found wild 

 in New Zealand, Norfolk Island, and the Chatham Islands. The plant is said to be unrivalled 

 for its yield of fibre, the sword-shaped leaves, which measure from five to ten feet in length, 

 giving upwards of fifteen per cent, of their green weight as cleaned fibre. 



The Maoris have long been known to prepare a most excellent fibre from Phormium by 

 hand, and even at the present day the machine-prepared product cannot approach the native 

 article in quality. The hand-made fibre, however, is much too expensive to be able to com- 

 pete successfully with other commercial fibres, and in all the mills controlled by Europeans 

 machinery is employed. The leaves are first' crushed between heavy rollers, and the soft tissues 

 stripped off by beaters attached to a revolving drum. The fibre is then very thoroughly washed 

 in running water, and afterwards exposed to the drying and bleaching action of the sun. After 

 being further cleaned and straightened it is made up into hanks and baled. Within recent years 

 the New Zealand Government has required that all Phormium fibre exported shall be graded 

 into-defmite qualities recognised by their officials, an action designed to maintain the reputation 

 of -the' fibre upon the world's -markets by guaranteeing to merchants an unvarying quality of 

 the^ product. Phormium fibre is soft, nearly white in colour, with a silky lustre, and its 

 breaking strain is stated 'to be higher than'that of either hemp or flax. 



,'--■'; Bowstring Hemps 



These fibres, which receive their names from the fact that the natives in various parts 

 of the world are said to prepare their bowstrings from them, are derived from the leaves of 

 several species of Sansevieria, an important genus of Liliaceae, with representatives in the 

 tropical regions of both the Old and New Worlds. They occur in Ceylon, on the West Coast 

 of Africa, and in the East Indies extending from Bengal to Java and China. The most 

 important species are 5. guineensis. ,a native of Guinea, and found in the West Indies, Central 

 America, Abyssinia, and Mauritius ; 5. Roxburghiana, a well-known plant of India ; 

 SV cylindrica, occurring in South Africa ; S. longiflora, a native of equatorical Africa, but now 



