MONDAY, JUNE 29.—AFTERNOON SESSION, 
5 P.M. 
Chairman. Monsieur E. Batttaup, Secretary-General of 
the Colonial Institute, Marseilles, | ice-President of 
the Congress. 
THE FIBRE INDUSTRIES OF BRITISH EAST AFRICA. 
By A. WIGGLESWORTH. 
[ApstrRact. ] 
THE discovery of large areas of Sansevieria echrenbergii in 
British East Africa first drew the attention of pioneers to the 
possibility of developing a fibre industry in that country. 
Concessions were granted by the Government authorizing 
the cutting of this plant, notably in the Voi district, and 
machinery was installed to automatically crush and clean the 
leaf. A merchantable fibre was obtained and was sold at prices 
under those ruling for sisal. 
Having witnessed the success of the sisal plantations in 
German East Africa, Mr. Campbell B. Hausberg, backed by 
Messrs. Swift and Rutherfoord, in November, 1907, conceived 
the idea of planting sisal (Agave sisalana) in the uplands on 
the rich lava-covered plateau in the Thika district. He 
ploughed, cross-pioughed, and cultivated this land with oxen, 
and planted bulbils obtained from German East Africa. At 
first these were spaced 7 ; ft. by 7 ft., but gradually wider until 
8 ft. by 8 ft. (say 650 plants per acre) became the established 
practice. The plants grew well and were ready for cutting 
in two and a half years. Several cuts, representing about 160 
leaves in all, were taken during the following two to two and 
a half years, yielding during the life of the plant a total of 
three tons of dry fibre per acre. An automatic decorticator 
of Messrs. Krupp’s make was installed by October, i911, 
driven by a 70-i.h.p. suction-gas plant, turning out two tons 
