Fibres. 



492 



[December, 1909. 



housing is at a high premium, and the 

 fortunate possessor of one or more coins 

 money. Every place is packed full, and 

 no building, however out of the way, 

 is allowed to stand empty. It is the 

 turn of the holder of warehouse room, 

 whose trading profit is to be envied at 

 the end of 1U08. And in the immediate 

 future the rate threatens to rise. It is 

 rumoured that more has been given. 

 Even cattle-sheds have been requisi- 

 tioned. 



Bad Jute Shipped. 



In alluding to the quality of the jute 

 received, the Advertiser declares that 

 deterioration rather than improvement 

 has to be recorded. The great bulk has 

 been an honest, well-selected, well-mani- 

 pulated tender, but a heavy proportion 

 has been just the opposite. How balers 

 will go on baling, and shippers go on 

 shipping material that will bring them 

 into trouble, it surpasses the wit of man 

 to say. Many a severe lesson was re- 

 ceived last year, and still the same 

 abominable work continues. It is a pity 

 this cannot be cured, as the watering 

 was. Invoicing back is a pretty drastic 

 remedy, but it fails to have effect. The 

 loss is so serious in a season like this 

 that, possibly when the determination 

 of the trade to put down and stamp out 

 this sort of conduct is seen, amendment 

 will be made, and next year will be 

 better. The estimable endeavour on the 

 part of the shippers to bind down the 

 balers not to have more than 'l\ per cento 

 of root was a step in the right direction, 

 and the sending out to Calcutta of 

 sample bales as a standard of quality 

 was another ; but there seems to be a 

 difficulty in getting these conditions and 

 standard worked to unless at a higher 

 price, and the arranging of this has 

 its drawbacks. 



For a time the first-mentioned scheme 

 worked admirably, and jute was being 

 landed here £2 per ton superior to the 

 same grades baled earlier in the year. 

 The improvement noticeable fell away, 

 but it is to be more rigidly adhered to 

 in future. The shoal of arbitrations 

 this year has been dreadful, and six 

 or eight of the marks, or the owners of 

 them, have had the due reward of 

 their misdeeds meted out. What is it 

 called when a baler thrusts fibre 40s. 



Eer ton inferior to the mark into the 

 ale he is packing ! To imagine that it 

 will not be detected is hopeless. Thou- 

 sands of pounds have been spent in 

 arbitrating, and that is not the worst 

 of it, for the spinner, whose jute it is, 

 finds it most inconvenient to be obliged 

 to do without the jute or substitute 

 another parcel for it. He often has it 



brought home to him that the transac- 

 tion was most profitable. So as to pro- 

 tect themselves as far as possible con- 

 sumers got much more into the habit of 

 buying a reputed first mark on whose 

 soundness and good quality reliance can 

 be placed. 



In conclusion it is stated that the year 

 was passing out amid irregularities of 

 price, which indicate that an over supply 

 of yarns exists. The remedy that tells 

 most unobjectionably is short time 

 working. An example of concerted 

 action has been shown by Calcutta, but 

 efforts to have it copied in Dundee have 

 been frustrated. 



SISAL PLANTING IN GERMAN 

 EAST AFRICA. 



By A. E. F. Fawcus, Reweru. 



(From the Agricultural Journal of 

 British East Africa, Vol. II., Part 

 II. Quarterly, July, 1909.) 



In view of the widespread interest 

 now being shewn in this country on the 

 cultivation of Sisal, and considering the 

 high state of development to which the 

 Germans, in their East African Colony 

 have brought this industry for com- 

 mercial purposes, it may be of interest 

 to those in this country who have either 

 sisal plantation in being, or who intend 

 to start planting sisal, to hear some- 

 thing about the methods in which the 

 Germans have laid out and are working 

 their plantations, and of the results they 

 are obtaining therefrom. 



Soil.— The soil preferred by the German 

 sisal planters is of a red to chocolate 

 colour and a light friable nature, and I 

 think that it is admitted amongst sisal 

 planters that a slight admixture of lime 

 in the soil is a sine qua non; and it 

 would be advisable for sisal planters in 

 this country who have no lime in their 

 soil to mix in a small quantity around 

 each plant. 



Configuration of Land.— The con- 

 figuration of the land should be of a 

 hilly nature so as to allow of easy 

 drainage, as a water-logged or clayey 

 soil is extremely detrimental to sisal. 



Preparation and Cultivation of 

 Land.— In some cases the German 

 planters have only cleared and burnt the 

 scrub, bush, grass, etc., on the land and 

 have not hoed the soil at all before plant- 

 ing ; after planting they skim the land 

 lightly with a jembe. But these plant- 

 ations are not to be compared with 

 those which are well hoed and cleaned 

 to commence with ; the plants on the 

 latter grow to a much larger size in the 



