March, 1909. J 



231 



Fibres. 



matter, but is thoroughly interested, 

 and if his expectation as to the merit in 

 the straw prove out, he will lose no time 

 in building his pulp mill somewhere in 

 the belt and will ship the pulp to the 

 mill in the north. In addition to the 

 value of the straw for paper making, 

 Mr. Wing finds that there is a large 

 quantity of rice left in the straw, and 

 from this he believes very many articles 

 of trade, such as alcohol and feed-stuffs 

 can be made. In fact, Mr. Wing believes 

 that rice straw can be utilized almost as 

 much as cottuu seed, which not so many 

 years ago were thrown away, as many 

 farmers now living can remember. As 

 there are about 60,000 acres of rice 

 planted in Jefferson County each season, 

 it will be seen that there is produced 

 about 120,000 tons of rice straw, which, at 

 $2 per ton, will yield $2f0,040, which 

 has heretofore and would otherwise 

 be thrown away." - tl Abbeville Meri- 

 dional."— Journal of the Board of Agri- 

 culture, British Guinea, Vol. II., No. 2, 

 October, 1908. 



CARAVONICA COTTON. 



In Monte Cristo, in the most easterly 

 part of Cuba, 1,500 feet above sea-level, 

 was last autumn planted about fifteen 

 acres with Caravonica silk, and about 

 fifty acres with Caravonica wool-cotton. 

 Although the planting could not be done 

 till the first days of December, as the 

 seeds ordered troru Australasia did not 

 come before that time, the result is most 

 satisfactory for both varieties. The 

 trees have borne and are still bearing 

 very richly. Samples of the cotton 

 have been sent to several experts in 

 America and Europe, and from all 

 quarters the cotton has been praised for 

 strength, gloss, and length of staple. 

 By this enterprise it seems to be proved 

 that of all kinds of cotton, known 

 up to date, the Caravonica is the best 

 one for planting in Cuba, as it pos- 

 sesses a considerable power to resist 

 drought, storm and insect pests. 



We have planted our trees at the dis- 

 tance of 7 by 7 feet, but according to our 

 experience Ave will recommend planting 

 8 by 8 feet, as even at this time — in the 

 middle of September— most trees have 

 grown to a height of 11 by 12 feet, some 

 of them are still higher. We shall have to 

 prune them rather severely for giving 

 them more sunlight and facilitate the 

 picking. 



After all, the enterprise seems to be a 

 very profitable business. A new area is 

 cleared, and when planting the new 

 acreage— which planting is to take place 

 in September— we shall have the great 



advantage of using our own selected and 

 acclimatised seed.— Cuban Correspon- 

 dent. 



This is a very interesting result. Cuba 

 is cooler than Jamaica, and at 1,500 

 feet the elevation would be equal to our 

 2,000 feet. — Journal of the Jamaica 

 Agricultural Society, Vol. XII., No. 11, 

 November, 190S. 



THE FIBRE INDUSTRY. 



By Leonard Acutt, J. P., Tougaat. 



This industry is not attracting the 

 attention in Natal which it deserves, 

 and I do not think the area of land 

 devoted to aloe-planting is on the in- 

 crease. It is true that extension to some 

 extent is being carried on on the South 

 Coast, but, on the other hand, some 

 large plantations both on the South 

 Coast and in Zululand have been 

 abandoned. 



Since my first visit to Mauritius, I 

 have naturally taken an interest in fibre, 

 and it is with much disappointment that 

 I have seen so little doing. I pen these 

 notes in the hope that they will result 

 iu more being done to increase our 

 acreage of aloe in the near future. 



I am not wishing to alter anything 

 which I said last year iu my " Report on 

 the Fibre Industry of Mauritius,"* but I 

 merely wish to emphasize a few points, 

 which, though I mentioned them in that 

 report, appear to me to be worthy of 

 special attention. 



In that report (page 120S) I said 

 "The main danger we have here 

 threatening any aloe plantations is that 

 of fire. The cultivation of Creole aloe 

 need only be of the roughest possible 

 description, but a rough cultivation in 

 this country meaus a quantity of grass 

 and debris which becomes dangerously 

 inflammable in the winter. In Mauritius 

 this does not occur, the grass and debris 

 is not, beyond the small patches, in- 

 flammable at any time of the year. 

 Therefore (in Natal) either cultivation 

 would have to be done to keep down the 

 grass, or we should have to be careful to 



revent outside fires coming in, and 



eep all roads and paths in the plant- 

 ations themselves free of inflammably 

 material." 



Now, the first of the above two alter- 

 natives is, at the best, costly, and the 

 other is dangerous and means a great 

 risk, which is not good enough business to 

 attract capital, and it is more than 

 probable that losses by fire have con- 

 tributed largely to the failures of some 



* October Journal, 1907, page 1199, 



