190 
boy to take away the clean fibre from the end of the pae it is 
ae of cleaning iveedeaceutd 50,000 to 60,000 leaves in a day 
“ I have not seen E this gece running on Sisal hemp leaves, but 
wi its work on the lea of bear-grass (Yucca filamentosa) 
furnished by the Department, the cleaning being accomplished in a 
thorough manner,’ 
LVII—SISAL HEMP IN THE BAHAMAS. 
[K. B., 1894, pp. 412-414.] 
The gradual development of the Sisal hemp industry in the Bahamas 
continues to be watched with a good deal of interest. It is now ina 
position when exports of prepared fibre een begun to be made and its 
value quoted as a regular article of comm An important statement 
on the subject (in continuation of that ee Tu Bulletin, 1894, p. 189) 
is contained in the following extract from th n ort on the 
Bahamas for 1893, submitted by the Governor, Sir Ambrose Shea, to 
“i 1101892) of State for the Colonies [Colonial Reports, Annual, 
0. 
The export of Bahama konp eemi iieo in 1893 to 1,2007. as against 
692/. in 1892. The area of Crown land now disposed of is 85,000 
acres, "while about 15,000 acres of private land are also in course of 
cultivation. The quantity eee at the end of 1893 was 17,000 acres 
and an annual increase of about 6,000 acres will be the rate of progress. 
The history of the origin and growth of this industry has so often 
been written that but little remains to be said in that regard. 
It will, hereafter, be a record of ee development and social 
advancement which results now appear to be as assured as is possible 
a the course of apea events. As far as ah welfare of the Colony is 
ncerned there seems to be the minimum of uncertainty, for it is not 
aunseivable that the =a of the fibre can go below the cost of produc- 
tion, though the profit, as in ets case. of all commercial enterprises, must 
ever be an uncertain and varying quantity. The export of 1893 was 
far below the Se projaiong, ough not from want of an aoe supply of 
the raw materi 
The shortco ome ng was due to several causes. In the first place the 
iy ini plantation, in which a an Americans ndicate is inter rested, 
cleaned perfectly mo aste (Ke 
Bulletin, 1894, p. 189). There can be but little doubt that this machine 
will be universally adopted, as, besides its efficiency, it is cheaply 
operated—a woman to feed the machine with leaves, another to remove 
the finished fibre, being all the labour attendant on this process. It has 
en for some time a subject of much tho ought as to how the small 
cultivators were to utilise their labour where, as in the great majority of 
w 
