270 



Can a maunfacturer buy from natives at this price, if they have 

 to brino" it in small quantities for miles and miles? No. Can a 

 manufacturer obtain it from his own plantations, if situated all 



around his factory? Yes, and cheaper. 



Therefore, what can be done with the best machine, if you have 

 not sufficient and cheap raw material? 



That machines for working fibres exist is, I believe, known to 



everybody. 



The question has often been put by European fibre- merchants, why 

 does not Singapore export Pineapple fibre as it appears that there 

 is plenty of raw materia!, and it is not necessary to cultivate more? 



The reasons are very simple. 



Pineapples (if cultivated in the sun for fruits) give a very short 

 and licrht fibre of only about 2 per cent, return ; therefore, to make 

 one ton fibre (dry) it is necessary to work about 800 piculs of leaves. 

 The price for one picul of leaves asked by natives, delivered in 

 Singapore, is §060 and higher, or the cost of the raw material 

 nearlv §480 per ton of dry fibre, more than the value of the fibre 

 on the London market. What are the reasons for this exorbitant 

 price of $0.60 asked by natives ? The following : — 



1. The very expensive bullock cart hire from the centre of cul- 

 tivation at the gth Mile in Thompson and Bukit Timah Roads and 

 Pasir Panjang. 



2. The impossibility of explaining to the Chinese cultivators 

 that it does not spoil the plant or diminish the return in fruits to cut 



some leaves from each plant. 



3. The necessity of cutting carefully only a few leaves from each 

 plant, where cooly wages are expensive. 



But on the other hand, to erect a factory, (to obviate the first rea- 

 son) near the plantations is impossible, because there exists no clean 

 fresh water near them nor indeed enough water to drive the engines 

 nor enough cheap firewood for this purpose. 



Therefore, to make Pineapple or any other fibre will only be pos- 

 sible if it is cultivated around a factory. Pineapple and some other 

 fibres require shade, where the leaves of Pineapples for instance 

 obtain a length of 6 to 12 feet and contain up to 3 per cent, fibre 

 and so cultivation will cost, delivered at the factory, only $0.10 to 

 80.15 per picul or as raw material $80 to $120 per ton. 



The points to be taken into consideration to start a fibre venture 

 which will work and pay are the following : — 



1. — Sufficient capital. 



2. — Patience, courage and a clear knowledge of the cultivation 



and manufacture. 



3. — Well situated and good land from the point of view of cul- 



tivation of plants as 'for the later erection of a factory 

 and the transport of leaves from field to factory. 



4. — Sufficient and cheap labour. 



