CULTIVATION OF SISAL IN THE BAHAMAS 221 



hung in the sun for a few hours to dry. The resuU is a rather coarse 

 fiber of considerable strength. Tlie finest quahty is nearly white, 

 while the inferior grades are yellowish in color. In order to produce 

 the best quality of fiber, the leaves must be cleaned as soon as possible 

 after being cut; otherwise the fiber is apt to be spotted. 



It may be well to state here that the cultivation of sisal is also being 

 tried in Bermuda, Trinidad, and Jamaica, but on a much smaller 



Fig. io. — The House of a Sisal Planter, Andres. 



scale than in the Bahamas. There, as already stated, large tracts of 

 land have been bought from the government for the sole purpose of 

 producing the sisal hemp. The price is now four dollars an acre, and 

 two acres are said to produce one ton of fiber. Wages for men vary 

 from thirty-six to sixty cents per day, according to the season and 

 locality, as most of the negroes are spongers, and at certain times of 

 the year labor is not easy to obtain. Women, however, are largely 

 employed in the planting and weeding, and receive on the average 

 twenty-five cents a day. These are the data on which it is stated that 



