THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



185 



THE HUMAN SIDE OF TWINE 



kr 

 When we drive home from the im- 

 piement dealer with our little load of 

 Sisal twine for the coming harvest, 

 we do not often realize that we are 

 giving that twine its final lift on the 

 journey of many thousands miles 

 which it has taken months to make. 

 Seldom do we appreciate when we 

 give it its final resting: place in the 

 binder box that the first hands which 

 touched it were those of a Maya boy 

 or girl in far off tropical Yucatan 

 whose ancestors were a great civilized 

 people, with temples and literature, 

 centuries before Columbus came 

 ashore in his red velvet suit. 



Or, if it is Manila twine, the first 

 step in its long pilgrimage was under 

 the guidance of a bare-footed, brown- 

 skinned little Filippino savage, who 

 perhaps never heard of a binder, and 

 whose views of agricultural imple- 

 ments are a pointed stone or a crook- 

 ed stick. 



Yet, if it were not for the industry 

 of these two widely separated nations, 

 the farmers of this rich state would 

 still be obliged to bind their grain 

 with old-fashioned wire, which never 

 worked or with untrustworthy cotton 

 strand. In fact, the problem of twine 

 was the problem of successful bind- 

 ing for years after the self-binder 

 was an established fact. 



It took many years and thousands 

 of dollars to eliminate this primary 

 drawback to the early grain growers 

 of the country. One manufacturer 

 alone spent $15,000 trying to make 

 twine out of grass, $35,000 using paper 

 as a substitute, and $43,000 on straw 

 all in the end to be discarded as un- 

 satisfactory. Then, after searching 

 the world with a close tooth rake, as 

 it were, it was found that two fibres 

 could be made to do the work 

 Manila and Sisal. The Manila long, 

 soft and even had generally been 

 used in multiple strands for making 

 cable and cordage; while the Sisal 

 strong, pliable and smooth was 

 found to lend itself perfectly for the 

 manufacture of a single-strand cord, 

 such as the self-binder necessitated. 



Then commenced a merry struggle 

 between the distant races for the 

 honor of supplying the twine which 

 was to make His Majesty, the Ameri- 

 can farmer, the greatest food pro- 

 ducer in the world. At first, owing 

 to the established position of the 

 Manila hemp trade caused by the 

 cordage industry, the little brown 

 brother in the Philippines forged 

 ahead, but he made no progress 

 in his methods of production, using 

 the knife and block and other 

 simple methods followed by his 

 primitive forefathers in extracting 

 the fibre. It was soon seen that Sisal 

 would either be the ultimate material 

 to supply this demand or the demand 

 would not be filled. At this point of 

 the race a number of clever, aggres- 

 sive Yucatecans, educated in the 

 sciences in this country and abroad 

 sprang into the game. They saw the 

 future commercial possibilities of the 

 neglected Sisal plant. At their own 

 expense they built railroads into the 



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RRIGATION by pumping is making hundreds of farmers prosperous. 

 It is the modern way. It makes you master of the water situation. You 

 can use water when and where and as long as you like. You do not 

 have to wait on the neighbors, or agree with them as to when the water 

 shall be turned into your lateral. 

 In many cases, pumping is the only means of irrigating you cannot get water 

 upon your land any other way. 

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There is no mystery and no impossibility about it. It is simply applying water 

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The engines require but little attention. They pump water in large quantities 

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