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ptospects of a plantain-fibre industry in that Colony. The figures supplied 
re very valuable :— 
“ The fibre of thousands of acres of plantains is lost annually in this 
Colony from the want of a simple and inexpensive machine for A lg 
it. The tree must always be cut down to obtain the fruit, a the 
containing the fibre is allowed to rot on the ground. Cou n offigiont 
eap machine be invented, the fibre would be almost aeie profit 
to the planter. The banana yields less fibre than the plantain tree, and 
its ets is Se tinted. 
“Vár attempts have san recently made to Tenete machinery 
for manufacturing the plantain fibre. Subsequent to the Exhibition 
at Paris, in 1855, st naa eforta were made is establish the pro- 
duction of fibre in this Colony as an ane of export, and the 
essrs. Watson had fibre-making machinery put up and tried on their 
estate, i bette h, but it was not found well adapted for the purpose, 
the stems in their natural state being so much more bulky than was 
allowed for i in constructing the machines. 
rage A er Gon Netscher, when proprietor of plantation 
n Pouderoyen, on the west bank of the River Demerara, in 1855, 
from 700 to 800 stems are cut per annum, either for the fruit, or in 
consequence of having been blown down by high winds, or fro m disease 
a 
give from 1,400 to 1,500 good stems every cutting, or about 4,500 in 
two years. 3. On —— Klein Pouderoyen, after repeated trials, 
the plantain stem an average has been found to give 24 lbs. clean, 
and 13 lb. Ristaloased and broken fibre, Do latter only fit for coarse 
paper. This result, however, has been obtained by very imperfect 
machinery. 4. The average weight of the plantain stem is 80 lbs. 
. The stems can be trans nsported from the field to the buildings for 
one dollar per hundred.” 
Owing to the increasing cultivation of bananas in the West Indies, 
r S 
devised for turning the fibre to account. There are at least 50,000,000 
banana stems cut down every year in the West Indies, and at present 
little or no use is made of the fibre. It is evidently not sufficiently good 
to compete with first-class rope fibres, but it might possibly be used for 
making coarse paper, as a packing material, or in the manufacture o 
papier r mâché. Its chief sonipetitsts i in some of these directions would 
rt 
and other trees in Norway and Sweden. This wood pulp is delivere 
in this country at a cost not exceeding 27. 10s. ui 3l 10s. per ton, and 
it is now very largely used by paper-makers 
Banana fibres from Musa sapientum are shown in the Kew Museum 
from the Andaman Islands, Jamaica, Mauritius, Ceylon, British Guiana, 
when dhe fibrəs such as Man ila and Sisal he emps are low, banana 
fibre is practically unsaleable. 
