April 1908.] 



330 



Fibres. 



14. Cut away all suckers, and if no 

 ground is ready for them put them in a 

 nursery for future planting. 



15. Leaves are ready for cutting when 

 they droop from a perpendicular to a 

 horizontal position. 



16. There is no regular season for 

 planting or harvesting. Both operations 

 may be carried out at any time of the 

 year. 



17. A machine for scutching cost 

 about £35 in Europe or Mexico. Haud 

 machines are unworkable, as a high 

 speed (400 revolutions a minute) is re- 

 quired. Use a horse gear or oil engine. 



18. With a good machine (the Barra- 

 clough or Death and Elwood or Todd) 

 about 8,000 lb. of green leaf can be passed 

 through the drum in ten hours, equal to 

 about 320 lb. of dry fibre per day. 



19. About 100 gallons of water are 

 used daily to wash the fibre as it passes 

 through the machine. When the fibre 

 comes out, it is hung upon wire lines in 

 the sun for a few hours, and after a day 

 or two in the shed it is then ready for 

 baling and sending to market. 



20. The cost of production is about 

 Id. per lb. of fibre. Generally speaking, 

 the whole cost from cutting to market is 

 about 40 per cent, of the value of the 

 fibre. That is to say, if you sell fibre at 

 the present market value, £35 "per ton, 

 the cost of production will be £14, and 

 the balance profit. 



21. The average annual return of fibre 

 is about 10 cwt. per acre for the first 



year or two, and after that as much as 

 one ton. In Yucatan \\ tons of fibre were 

 produced from 2-year- old-plants, but this 

 was exceptional, and cannot at all be 

 reckoned on. 



22. Melbourne will take 2,000 tons of 

 fibre per annum, and there is a never- 

 failing market in New York, as well as in 

 Germany and France. — Queensland De- 

 partment of Agriculture and Stock, 

 Brisbane, 1906, pp. 35. 



SISAL FIBRE. 



In a brief note on Sisal fibre communi- 

 cated to the Journal d' Agriculture Tro- 

 picale for December, 1907, M. L. Haute- 

 feuille points out some of the errors into 

 which inexperienced planters may fall. 



The distance between the plants should 

 be determined, he says, not, as has been 

 suggested, by the fertility of the soil, 

 but from the point of view of convenience 

 in working. This is important owing to 

 the deadly ar ray of spines with which 

 the agave is armed. 



With regard to the question of sun 

 drying, he points out the remarkable 

 difference in the power of the sun's rays 

 in different countries, and remarks that 

 if a colony of Cubans were to migrate to 

 Tonkin, they would soon have to adopt 

 the topee which they so much despise. 



His third point is with reference to 

 the terminology. Agave americana, he 

 says, has been mistaken for A. rigida 

 (sisalana,) a totally different plant. 



