December, 1909.] 



493 



Fibres. 



same space of time and give a much 

 greater percentage of fibre, and in 

 addition to these two important factors 

 the quality of the fibre is superior. The 

 plants in a badly cultivated plantation 

 are very small and yellow instead of 

 being large and of a bluish colour. On 

 one plantation near Tanga, which was 

 too large for the owner's means, and con- 

 sequently the weeds thereon had been 

 allowed to run riot, I saw 4-year old 

 plants which were certainly not more 

 than 3' 6" high, while on well-kept plant- 

 ations, I saw 3-year eld plants 7' 7" high. 

 Sisal is a plant to which plenty of sun 

 and fresh air are absolutely essential, 

 and if shaded at all the fibre becomes 

 weak and is not strong enough to keep 

 the leaves rigid, and these in consequence 

 collapse. The cost of clearing, hoeing 

 once and planting varies from Rs. 70 

 to Rs. 150 per hectare (1 hectare = 2^ acres 

 approx.) Four to five light hoeiugs per 

 annum are necessary to keep the land 

 free from weeds. 



Plants.— Propagation of sisal takes 

 place in two ways, viz,, Bulbil and 

 Rhizome suckers. - 



Bulbils are small plants which appear 

 on the branches of the pole of the main 

 plant replacing the flowers after the 

 latter have withered ; sometimes as 

 many as 4,000 have been picked from 

 one plant. 



The pole of the sisal plant only appears 

 when the life of the plant is ending and 

 grows to a height of about 20' 0". From 

 a commercial point of view the bulbil is 

 not as satisfactory as the sucker, because 

 it takes at least six months longer to 

 reach the age of maturity, but when 

 long distance and expensive transport 

 are necessary, the practicability of 

 planting the latter in large numbers 

 would hardly be possible on account of 

 its bulk and weight, 



The sucker is a young plant shooting 

 from the rhizomes or underground 

 stems of the parent plants. Where 

 there is a shortage in the supply of young 

 sisal it is advisable to cut these off the 

 rhizome as soon as they appear above 

 ground and put them in nurseries, be- 

 cause if the suckers are allowed to 

 grow on until they are ready for plant- 

 ing in the fields, they take up much 

 of the strength of the main plant, 

 which would otherwise be utilised in 

 producing new suckers. An inter- 

 esting and useful fact to planters in 

 British East Africa where the supply of 

 young sisal plants is limited, is that if 

 the rhizome is pulled up and cut into 

 small pieces and then put into well- 

 watered nurseries, nearly all those pieces 

 will develop into plants. 



The Germans generally plant out their 

 suckers when they are twelve inches or 

 more high ; before planting, all the roots 

 and small base leaves are cut off. 



Planting Distances.— Although as 

 regards planting distances, many experi- 

 ments have now been made, the average 

 and also the general planting distances, 

 now used for sisal in German East 

 Africa are 2^ meters between rows and 

 lj between plants which are practically 

 equivalent to 8' 0" x 4' 0". These dis- 

 tances give approximately 1,300 plants 

 to the acre. They have now entirely 

 given up the practice of planting be- 

 tween the old rows at the end of the 

 third year as it has been found that the 

 intermediate rows do not grow at all 

 well as the first series of plants exhausts 

 the soil too much. Now, after the plants 

 have poled, the land is allowed to be 

 fallow for three years, while another 

 part of the plantation which would then 

 have reached the age of maturity is 

 being worked. 



Laying out Plantation.— Where pos- 

 sible it is often economical and advan- 

 tageous to have the factory near to the 

 centre of the plantation, but in many 

 cases this is not practicable, and in 

 cases where the plantation is bordered 

 on one side by a river the balance of 

 advantages weighs towaids having 

 the factory by the river. However, 

 with regard to this matter it is quite 

 impossible to lay down any hard and 

 fast rule as local conditions such as rail- 

 ways, rivers, slope of laud, etc., must 

 be taken into consideration. 



When laying out a plantation it is 

 necessary to consider very carefully the 

 site for the factory and the spaces to be 

 left for tram lines, these latter are an 

 absolute necessity and cost approxi- 

 mately £240 per mile, so both from the 

 point of view of capital cost and of 

 economical working it is advisable to lay 

 out tram lines so as to be of as short a 

 distance and to command as much area 

 as possible. 



On some plantations I visited the fields 

 were divided by roads into ten hectare 

 (about 25 acres) blocks. This was done 

 to allow greater facility in administra 

 tion, but unless a remunerative plant, 

 such as Ceara rubber or Coffee or Cocoa 

 is grown along these divisions, it means 

 a great deal of unnecessary expense in 

 cultivation and weeding, and is by no 

 means necessary. Of course a certain 

 amount of water is required for the pre- 

 paration of sisal, but quite a small quan- 

 tity will suffice, although a good supply 

 of about 500 gallons an hour is desirable. 



In some cases in German East Africa 

 I believe the washing tanks are filled 



