71 



may be planted similar, and needs no replanting for one 

 hundred years. There are patches -of the yucca now 

 growing in Louisiana and Mississippi in th« woods and 

 briers, where the sun has not shown on them probably for 

 sixty years, and there are others growing on lawns known 

 to have been planted more than one hundred yeajrs ago. 

 The older it gets the thicker and more thrifty the growth- 

 it is not only an evergreen, but grows the entire year, 

 needs no enclosure, and is without enemies, 



HOW HARVESTED AND PREPARED FOR MAi;KET. 



The green leaves are stripped from the stalk, either by 

 hand or by means of a spud, then run through the yucca 

 cleaner green a^ they. are stripped, then the fibre is ready 

 for baling ^nd the market. 



now ONE MAN CAN CULTIVATE FIFTY ACKES 



A man with a mule can plant and cultivate twenty acres 

 in drills, similar to sugar cane, from the 1st of of Septem- 

 ber to the 1st of January, and from the 1st of January to 

 the 1st of May he can plant and cultivate twenty acres 

 more, and during the months of May and June ten acres 

 more. The experience of the writer is that it will require 

 but slight or no cultivation after the first year, when 

 planted as a farm product. 



The clean or marketable fibre and materials manu- 

 factured therefrom were never known to be introduced into 

 commerce,- until introduced by the writer of This article in 

 1867. ' Very respectfully, 



A. Stoner. 



Stony Point, E. Baton Rouge Parish, La., February 

 19th, 1876. 



Remarks. — Our correspondent is mistaken as to his 

 being the first to introduce it to commerce. We have 

 some of the fibre in the offica, of which we sent samples to 

 several rope and cordage dealers, calling their attention to 

 it, and somfe of whom offered to buy the article by the bale, 

 but we could find no one who would ga|;her and prepare it 

 for market. The sample was furnished us in 1872, by Mr. 

 Waterman, of this city, who was the first to call our atten- 

 tion to the value of the fibre. Since that time we have had 



