Fibres. 



43d 



TMay, 1909. 



said to be of superior strength. Its 

 annual yield is variously estimated at 

 from £3 to £10 per acre. 



t4 The estimated area under sisal culti- 

 vation is considerably over 25,000 acres. 

 The output exceeds that of previous 

 years, and the acreage is increasing, 

 especially in the Out Islands. 



" The enormous trade already existing 

 in sisal, and the increasing demand with 

 which the production has not yet been 

 able to keep pace, the expansion of the 

 Canadian wheat-growing industry, for 

 which millions of pounds of binder-twine 

 are needed annually, and of late the 

 decrease in the output of Manila fibre, 

 all tend to encourage the planting of 

 sisal. 



"Other countries are coming to the 

 front with this sisal fibre industry, which 

 makes it more and more important that 

 no efforts should be spared to bring our 

 product up to the mark in quality. The 

 Hawaiian Islands, Porto Rico, Mexico, 

 and other countries are setting to work 

 with a will to develop a fibre industry ; 

 vast quantities of fibre are produced 

 and are coming forward for the Ameri- 

 can market." 



A good many years ago a plantation 

 of sisal hemp was established here by 

 Colonel Ward at Moneymusk, but it 

 was given up, owing to the difficulty 

 then of finding effective machinery 

 for dealing with the plant. At the 



present time, however, there are several 

 machines in the market that are said 

 to be thoroughly effective. 



A small plantation has been again set 

 out in Vere, and, judging from the con- 

 fidence in this industry in other parts of 

 the world, we should think it will be 

 very successful. There is talk of another 

 small venture in Trelawny. There are 

 good stretches of land in Jamaica quite 

 suitable for growing sisal. This variety 

 of agave, as well as others, and also 

 Sauseviera, grow wild in the driest parts, 

 and are common. The most suitable 

 soils are light, dry, well-drained, on a 

 limestone foundation, and these are 

 common here, and once the plant is 

 established, no dry weather can kill it 

 out. 



This cultivation has made Yucatan, 

 the poorest endowed part of Mexico by 

 Nature, perhaps the richest in actual 

 wealth. The export of fibre from 

 Yucatan is about 000,000 bales, of a value 

 of £3,500,000. The importations into 

 the United States in 1905 amounted to 

 8,205,819 lb., at an average oL' £'J5 per ton. 

 The price per ton, which was £15. 0s. 3d. 

 in 1904, has steadily increased every year 

 until now it ranges from £35 to £37 10s. 

 per ton. On dry lands plantations of 

 sisal hemp could be easily and cheaply 

 established, and crops of cotton taken 

 off between the rows when the sisal 

 plants were small. — Journal of the 

 Jamaica Agricultural Society. 



EDIBLE PRODUCTS. 



TEA MANUFACTURE IN 

 DARJEELING. 



The Problem of Quality. 



The old adage that tea is made on 

 the garden and spoilt in the factory is 

 often quoted in connection with Dar- 

 jeeling manufacture, but in some cases 

 it might be more correct to apply the 

 saw of the silk purse and the sow's ear. 



Analysing the results of the elaborate 

 experiments conducted of recent years 

 with the object of discovering the causes 

 of quality in tea, it is now generally re- 

 cognised that, as far as Darjeeling is con- 

 cerned at all events, we at e as far from the 

 tiue explanation as ever, if or we are con- 

 fronted with such a mass of contradictory 

 evidence that the planter may well plead 

 confusion rather than enlightenment. 



Much theoretical advice has been forth- 

 coming, but the practical methods recom- 

 mended for the improvement of quality 

 have not met witli approval from the 

 majority of those planters in Darjeeling 

 who have given them a trial. In fact these 

 methods are in many cases so diametri- 

 cally oppose:! to those practised on 

 estates yielding teas of the highest class, 

 that there is grave reason for the belief, 

 often expressed, that quality cannot be 

 controlled. 



The supply of Darjeeling teas bein? 

 such a small one, comparatively speak- 

 ing, there is usually a consistent demand, 

 and they can generally be relied upon to 

 fetch a remunerative price. To the 

 outsider Avho, possessed of no practical 

 knowledge, peruses the weekly market 

 reports, it would doubtless appear that 

 Darjeeling gardens, as a whole, must pay 

 the most handsome profits of any, high 



