222 CULTIVATION OF SISAL IN THE BAHAMAS 



a ton of fiber can be produced for $50. As the price of the fiber is 

 now from $120 to $130 a ton, and has been as high as $200, these 

 figures look attractive. 



But it may well be asked, " How about the quantity of fiber now on 

 the market, and will the market stand the enormous increase, that the 

 yield of the Bahamas will give ? " That is, of course, the very point on 

 which the question of profit or loss will turn. The writer has been told, 

 by one who is well acquainted with the fiber market, that if the sisal 

 hemp could be sold for four and a half or five and a half cents per pound, 

 in a few years the consumption would be doubled ; for, when the price 

 reaches nine or ten cents a pound, the use of the fiber for many pur- 

 poses is abandoned, and is replaced by some cheaper material, as 

 jute. 



One of the principal obstacles in the way of cheaper fiber is the 

 need of a good machine, as the one now in use is a crude affair, requir- 

 ing the attendance of two men and a boy besides the engineer, and 

 producing but a small quantity of fiber daily. Although much skill 

 and money have already been spent in attempting to invent a better 

 machine, as yet all efforts have been unsuccessful; but, as inventors 

 and mechanics are still at work, and as the recent " sisal boom" in the 

 Bahamas will increase the demand, there is little doubt but that here, 

 as in so many other cases, necessity will prove the mother of invention. 

 When the fiber can be cheaply produced in large quantities, there is 

 little doubt but that increased uses will be found for it, and that the 

 demand will equal the supply. 



In 1887 Yucatan exported crude fiber valued at over $3,000,000, 

 besides $37,862 in rope and $43,891 in hammocks. About eighty-four 

 per cent of the crude fiber and fifty per cent of the hammocks came 

 to the United States; most of the remaining fiber went to England, 

 Germany, and France, while Spain took the rest of the hammocks 

 and all the rope. In 1889 the import of sisal hemp into the United 

 States was between $6,000,000 and $7,000,000, about 50,000 tons, on 

 which a duty of $15 a ton was paid.^ 



Now it may be asked: "Why cannot the United States produce 



sisal too? Is no portion of our vast territory suitable for this crop?" 



As we shall see, some one did ask that question over fifty years ago. 



It is not generally known that in 1827 the Treasury Department issued 



' The duty has since been removed. 



