“COST OF PRODUCING PLANTAIN FIBRE. 83 
For workmen’s wages, soda, lime, and fuel, at £3 per ton . £54 
Freight to Europe, at £4 per ton A : . 72 
Manager ‘ 3 . - . . 30 
Duty, insurance, office fees, &c., at £1 per ton ‘ . 18 
£174 
Thus making the total expense of producing 18 tons of fibre 
£174, or £9 13s. 4d. per ton. 
By another statement, derived from different data, but some- 
what similar sources, it has been calculated that Plantain 
fibre, in a coarse state, might be laid down in England, at 
£10 6s.8d. But some expense would be incurred in cleansing 
the fibre for finer purposes. In another account, also taken from 
West Indian information, it is stated that the cost of well- 
cleaned fibre would amount to £7 1s.3d., to which, of course, 
freight would have to be added ; while half-stuff for paper-makers 
might, at the same time, be produced from the-refuse at about 
half that sum. 
As Plantain fibre has not yet, as far as we have heard, been 
systematically prepared as an article of commerce, these cal- 
culations of cost are somewhat conjectural. But they are 
interesting, as showing, from the experiments which had been 
made, that large quantities of a valuable product may be 
obtained at a comparatively cheap rate; and this, from what is 
now a complete refuse—that is, the stem and leaves ; while the 
expenses of culture are paid for by the fruit. And the more so, 
as the data are West Indian, where the prices of material and 
the wages of labour are much higher than in India. 
Specimens of Plantain fibre, and a barrel of it for experimental 
purposes, were sent by two Exhibitors from Demerara, also 
some from Porto Rico (v. ‘ Illust. Cat., p. 982); and it was 
stated that the fibre might be obtained in very large quantities 
from the Plantain cultivation of the former colony. It is cal- 
culated that upwards of 600 1b. weight of fibre might be pro- 
‘duced annually from each acre of Plantains, after reaping the 
fruit crops. It is further stated, that “at present, the stems 
of the Plantain trees, when cut down; are allowed to rot on 
the ground. If a remunerative price could be realised for this 
fibre, a new branch of industry would be opened up to the 
colonists,” 
From India, unfortunately, we have no statements showing 
