7 



taining the leaves, feed the machines as fast as their hands can move — 1 boy to two wheels supplies the 

 feeders, and 3 others carry away the fibre to the drying ground adjoining. It is the most simple thing 

 possible, requiring no skilled labour. There is no water used either for soaking the leaves or washing 

 the fibre, which after exposure to the sun for 2 hours, is fit for baling. The engine is driven by an 

 Indian. 



" Many of the engines are supplied by Browu and May and the wheels are all from Death and Ell wood, 

 Leicester. There are in the State of Yuoatan very many machines and many engines, but no hand power 

 machines. The machines or wheels at present in use have been working ever sinoe they were first intro- 

 duced 20 yearB ago: the knives or scrapers lequire renewing occasionally. 



" The working hours at this farm were from 4 a.m., to 12 noon, or earlier, if the 8,000 leaves to each 

 machine were cleaned with an interval for breakfast. The fibre is all housed the same day, the machine 

 men in the afternoon lending a hand in gathering it in from the drying ground. If the farm has a press 

 it is properly baled ; if not, it is hand-baled and sent to Merida at once, 8 bales on a dray drawn by six 

 mules, or by road and railway from the more distant farms and thvre re-baled or sold as it is. 



" Here was a farm cleaning daily 48,000 leaves or 72,000 lbs., of the crude material yielding 3,000 lbs., 

 (5 o/o fibre) costing at the farm 2§ cents per pound Mexican silver (33J below gold) worth in Merida 

 10| cents gold. . . . There are in Yucatan some 200 henequsn farms of all sizes, the largest running 30 

 machines and employing 500 hands, and several others of 20 wheels or more. Many famers' daily in- 

 comes are $500 to $2,000 clear profit," * 



Yield. — Each plant should produce 30 leaves in the year. If there are 600 plants to the acre, this 

 gives 18,000 leaves per acre per annum. One thousand leases weigh about 1,500 lbs., and, yielding about 

 4 per cent, of dry fibre, give 60 lbs. of hemp. Thus, each acre should yield about half a ton of hemp 

 per annum. 



The following quotations are taken from a recent number of the " British Journal of Commerce :" — 

 Fibre. — Algerian, curled, green, per ton ... £ 7 



" black " ... 11 



Aloe " " ... 15 to £18 



China Grass" " ... 33 to 36 



China jute " " ... 22 to 23 



Mexican " " ... 34 to 38 



Raffia " " ... 25 to 26 



Rhea " " ... 9 to 13 



Kitool " per lb. ... 3 to 1 



Hemp— Polish per ton ... 24 to 31 



Italian " ... 33 to 50 



Sunn " ... 6 to 15 



Other East India * ... 6 10 to 22 



Manilla, brown, etc. " ... 45 to 50 



" fair " ... 51 to 52 



" good " ... 53 to 55 



" Quilot " ... 55 to 66 



Mauritius " ... 36 to 43 



New Zealand " ... SO to 36 



Sisal " ... 53 



The following is of importance in connection with this subject : — 



Washington, Sept. 27. — A copy of resolutions, adopted at the Republican Convention of Pratt 

 County, Kan., on September 7, will be presented to President Harrison to-morrow. The resolutions 

 substantially say that the duty levied on imported fibres, suitable for making binding twine, has failed 

 in its protective features to develope or give the farmers a home product to take the place of the foreign 

 fibres, and that American grain-growers are compelled to rely on imported fibres of which to make 

 binding twine suitable for binding grain. To continue collecting a duty on such imports is working a 

 hardship on the grain growers by increasing the cost of their binding materials. 



Congressman S. R. Peters was requested to frame and introduce a bill into Congress to place all 

 raw fibres that are used and are suitable for making binding twine on the free list, and to use every 

 means in his power to have the bill passed at the earliest possible date. The President was petitioned to 

 call the attention of Congress to the matter, asking immediate relief. 



COCA. 



The following account of Coca is taken from Dr. Weddel's " Yoyage dans le nord de la Bolivie :" — 

 "The cultivation of Erythroxylon Coca, as carried on in Bolivia in the present day, d oes not appear 

 to differ from that which prevailed previous to the conquest ; and the province of Yungas de la Paz is 

 that which, since the Spanish occupation, seems to have supported the most considerable plantations. 

 All the slopes of the mountains, below an elevation of 2,200 metres (7,217 feet), are literally covered with 

 them, and the traveller has continually in view the factories or haciendas where the leaf is prepared for 

 Hie purposes oi trade. 



" The Coca Shrub is propagated from seed. For this purpose the seeds, immediately after gathering 

 are scattered on the surface of the light and frequently watered soil of a little nursery (almaciga) where 

 they come up generally at the end of ten or fifteen days. The waterings are continued, and, should the 

 sun strike the young plants too violently, they are sheltered with mats. 



* Mr. Kennedy, of the llailway Work Shop, is engaged ia the improvement of his Fibre Machine, and it is hoped that it 

 may turn out a great success. 



