12 BULLETIN 930, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



cultivation of this crop was restricted to limited areas of land near 

 the seacoast, as the leaves can not profitably 7 be transported for long 

 distances. It was clearly evident that the producers of retted maguey 

 and sisal fibers could not hope to compete successfully with the pro- 

 ducers of machine-cleaned sisal in other countries. If any further 

 argument in favor of machine cleaning was necessary, it was fur- 

 nished during the latter part of 1917, when American manufacturers 

 decided to discontinue the use of salt-water retted fiber for binder 

 twine. As the principal use of maguey had been for the manufacture 

 of binder twine, the results of this action would have been disastrous 

 to the maguey industry had there not been at the time an unusually 

 strong demand for this fiber for other purposes and in countries 

 other than the United States. There is no probability, however, that 

 there will ever be, under normal industrial conditions, a steady 

 demand for retted maguey and sisal fibers at prices that will make 

 the production of these fibers a profitable industry. 



In 1917 no fiber-cleaning machines for maguey and sisal were in 

 operation in the Philippines and no commercial agencies for such 

 machines had been established in the Islands. The planters were 

 not familiar with the work of machines of this character and did not 

 know where or under what conditions machines could be obtained. 



One of the first lines of cooperative work undertaken . was to 

 demonstrate that maguey and sisal can be successfully and profitably 

 cleaned in the Philippine Islands by the use of machinery. The 

 Government has purchased, installed, and operated in the maguey- 

 producing Provinces of the Philippines three modern fiber-cleaning 

 machines. On account of the high cost of machinery and the lack 

 of adequate transportation, this work has been conducted under un- 

 usually difficult conditions. It has,' however, produced definite and 

 positive results. The maguey planters have been shown that the use 

 of machines for cleaning maguey and sisal in the Philippine Islands 

 is entirely practicable, and a commercial agency for handling fiber- 

 cleaning machines has been established in Manila, through which the 

 Philippine planters are now able to purchase machines on very lib- 

 eral terms. 



On April 1, 1920, 18 modern fiber-cleaning machines were either 

 in operation, were being installed, or had been ordered for use in 

 the Philippine Islands. These 18 machines will have a total daily 

 cleaning capacity of approximately 2,000,000 leaves. With an aver- 

 age yield of 50 pounds of fiber per 1,000 leaves, which is ordinarily 

 obtained with henequen and sisal, the total daily output from 2,000,- 

 000 leaves would be 50 tons of fiber, or the total annual output, for 

 300 working days, would be 15,000 tons of fiber, which is more than 

 the present total production of maguey and sisal in the Philipjrine 

 Islands. With the small maguey leaves that are now obtainable in 



