50 



USEFUL FIBER PLANTS OF THE WORLD. 



feet apart and 6 feet apart in the row; some old fields 9 feet between the rows and 

 4 feet in the row, the plants set with considerable regularity. The plants receive 

 two dressings the lirst year and one every year afterwards. 



The size of the cultivations on the estates range from 250 to 3,500 acres. They are 

 laid out in fields or sections of 50 to 200 acres, and contain from 600 to 000 plants to 

 the acre. When preparing the fields, the land is cut during the dry season, is then 

 allowed to spring up. after which it is " sprig weeded,'' and burned after the first fall 

 of rain. The stumps are cut close to the ground, so as to be out of the way of the 

 leaves of the plants and to facilitate the running of the line for planting and get- 

 ting the rows straight. When planting, the laborers have a small line with the dis- 

 tanees at which the plants are to be set out knotted on it and a pole cut to the 

 length that the rows are to be apart. A man and a boy are employed at each line. 

 The boy drops the plants along the row at the distance marked on the line, and 

 then removes the line to the nest row, dropping the plants as before. The man does 



the planting, and is responsible 

 for the rows being straight. 

 When coming to a rock the 

 planter does not turn aside, 

 but goes on and places the plant 

 in the row a little beyond. (Stu- 

 art's Report.) 



Mr. Stuart states that the hemp 

 plantations in Yucatan vary from 

 500 to 28,000 acres in extent, 

 with a total number of 105,000 

 acres under cultivation, employ- 

 ing 12,000 Indian laborers. The 

 largest and best estates are on 

 the rocky, gravelly lands, and 

 they are valued from $100,000 

 to $500,000 each. Each estate 

 is managed by three principal 

 men — the attorney, the manager, 

 and assistant manager. The 

 largest estates employ locomo- 

 tives for hauling in the crop from 

 the fields, others using tramway 

 trucks or carts drawn by mules 

 or oxen. Estates with less than 800 acres under cultivation erect one Raspadoi (see 

 fig. 16) for every 100 acres. Those of 1,000 acres use the large automatic machines. 



Regarding the rate of growth in Florida, a plant set out at 18 inches high, from 

 the nursery, -will produce leaves fit for cutting in three years. 



''In June, 1887, I set out plants around my house; these were from 6 to 8 inches 

 high. At the end of the first year small plants began to appear around the base, 

 which I used for proj>agation. At two years the leaves of the large plants were 2 

 feet 8 inches long at the same time the longest leaves were :! feet 2 indies long and 

 were fit to commence cutting. The result of one plant here of two and one-half years' 

 growth is an average of 17 young plants and 10 leaves sufficiently long to harvest. 

 The same plant in its fourth year will give a still larger result, increasing in use- 

 fulness each year until it flowers in its eleventh to its thirteenth year, which ends 

 the life of the plant.'' {Robert Hanson.) 



Mr. Cleminson, of Jupiter, states that the average length of the leaf from a 1-year- 

 old plant as grown in Florida is 3 feet 3 inches when cut, and for three years after- 

 wards <> inches longer each year. Thrifty plants 7 years old will produce leaves 5 

 feet in length. 

 "The length of time required for the production f the first cutting of leaves may, 



Fig. 13.— Pole plants or slips, Agave sisalana. 



