160 
remote from each other on the same island, so that each settlement 
ould have its share of the benefits of the new industry, by obtaining, at 
e? 
. 
of land sold and applied for, to wit, 300,000 acres, is bearing, which ought 
to happen within five or six years, it will produce 150,000 tons a year, 
worth $15,000,000, an increase of prosperity that sounds more like a 
fairy tale than a strong probability deduced from reasonable figures. 
And yet 300,000 acres is but a smail portion of the uncultivated lands 
within the limits of the Bahamas, 
It is estimated that about 6,000 acres of land have already been 
planted in Sisal (a plantation once started needs no replanting for many 
paid for plants have risen from 6 cents per dozen to 36 cents, so great 
; but the price will now decline rapidly, since the 
000 being 
plants is very great. From the centre of the old plant rises a pole 
about 16 feet in length, on the branches of which small plants grow, 
and from these poles a vast supply is 
rofitable business; for what were two 
years ago only noxious weeds have all at once beco th $20 
apiece for pole plants alone. Quantities of old plants have lately been 
developed in the southern portion of Florida. The 
there growing wild just as they are in these islands, and they flourish best 
in dry sandy soils, fit for little else. T w 
of the Department of Agriculture to this matter 
ditions of soil, climate, &c., which make its culture | 
obtain there, but the simple fact that the plant is i 
| Florida is of itself a consideration that should 
... &t the hands of the Departme: ; 
nt. 
unexampled success of the Sisal industry, in so brief a 
£x : z period 
în this colony is entirely attributable to the business-like, systematic 
— os 
