BINDER-TWINE FIBER IN THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 19 



for the purpose of encouraging the increased production of binder- 

 twine fiber in the Philippine Islands. 



The more important lines of work undertaken have been the in- 

 troduction of machine cleaning to replace the unsatisfactory retting 

 process, the distribution of sisal plants, and the introduction of 

 improvements on the plantations. 



As a result of this work, machine cleaning has been established on 

 a commercial.basis, and 12 large modern fiber-cleaning machines have 

 been purchased by Philippine planters during the last 18 months; 

 500,000 sisal bulbils have been imported into the Philippine Islands 

 from the Hawaiian Islands; and there is now enough sisal in the 

 Philippines to furnish an abundant supply of plants for future use. 

 While there has been no marked and widespread improvement of con- 

 ditions on the plantations, there has been a fair degree of progress. 



The production of maguey and sisal fibers in the Philippine Islands 

 for the first five months of 1920 has been larger than during any 

 similar period in previous years. During this period the production 

 of Philippine maguey and sisal has been approximately 20 per cent 

 of the henequen production of Yucatan. 



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