146 
THE TROPICAL AGWGtJLTURlST. [September 2, 1889. 
industry in this colony. Its appearance has coin- 
cided with the disoovery of new appliances, which 
have given a considerable impulse to the manu- 
facture, because they lower the net cost of the 
fibres, and also with a rise of the article in the 
London market. These two causes united have 
brought about quite a revolution among us. Impor- 
tant affairs have been seen to take place in a few 
months ; new companies have been formed ; large 
extents of ground have been bought at prices which 
the former proprietors of land long depreciated no 
longer hoped to secure ; works have been erected ; 
and motion and life have all at once flowed into 
those vast solitudes of the coaBt, deserted since the 
disappearance of the cane. 
It has been thought fit to accord to this pamphlet 
the honour of this transformation. 
I will not have the false modesty to think that it 
has not helped towards it ; but I believe that my 
duty is to make known the true causes of the indus- 
trial revolution which has just taken place, and to 
name the authors of it : — it is those who were not 
afraid, at the first news of the progress realized, to 
invest their funds in the new companies, — who, as 
partisans convinced of the great future reserved for 
the hardy plant, have not hesitated to devote them- 
selves entirely to it, — and who, sympathizing spec- 
tators of the struggles of the early days, have 
understood that the moment had come for them to 
lend their effective co-operation to a work which was 
to endow the country with an important source of 
wealth, and have contributed in a large measure in 
overcoming the last obstacles. 
One is, indeed, astonished on ascertaining what 
immense progress this extraction of aloe fibre, so 
long despised, has realized in so short a time. To be 
convinoed one has only to cast his eyes over 'the 
list of sooieties formed in these last six months, all 
of which also are in a flourishing condition, though 
of recent formation. 
The following are the principal in the order of 
their appearance : — 
1. Rouge Terre Hemp Estate Society Limited, 
established with a oapital of B140.000, and produ- 
cing about 1,500 lb. per day ; 
2. Palmyre Hemp and Sugar Estate Society 
Limited, established with a capital of R180.000, and 
also producing 1,500 lb. of fibre per day, but lime 
and sugar besides ; 
3. Massilia Hemp Society Limited, established 
with a capital of R120.000, and producing 20 tons 
of fibre per month ; 
4. Man Choisy Hemp Company Limited, 
established with a oapital of R400,000, and producing 
30 tons per month ; 
5. Vale and Black River Hemp Company Limited, 
established with a capital of R450,000, and producing 
40 tons of fibre per month ; 
6. The Mauritius Hemp Company Limited, started 
with a capital of R180,000, and producing 1,500 
lb. per day ; 
7. La Societe de Yemen, E300,000, and producing 
fibre and vanilla ; 
8. The Albion and Gros Cailloux Sugar and Hemp 
Company Limited, established with a capital of 
Rl,500,000. 
Beside these joint stock Sooieties, a great number 
of private concerns have been set up, of which the 
prinoipal are : — 
1. Vertou, by M. de Mars, producing from 12 to 
15 tons per month ; 
2. Raima, by M. Bonieux ; 
3. P. Toulet at La Montagne Longue ; 
4. D'Unienville, at Beau Bassin, one of the pro- 
moters of the industry, and long at work ; 
5. Vally, at La Petite Riviere, produoing a superior 
quality ; and extremely particular as to the article 
that be delivers ; 
6. J. Cauvin, atLes Pailles ; 
7. M. Vigoureux, at Les Bambous, who not only 
cultivates vast extents of land covered with magni- 
ficent aloes, but is also planting up on a very large 
scale; 
8. Balaklava, by Messrs. Samuel Baker & Co., 
whose machines are put into motion by means of a 
powerful hydraulic apparatus ; 
9. Lastly, St. Antoine, which combines the latest 
improvements and will soon begin producing. 
All are active ; many produce over one ton per 
day — and some are already yielding dividends. This 
is not all. Everywhere planting is going on, and 
after a lapse of less than five years all that shore 
where nothing grew beside the " old maid " will 
be found valuable and entirely covered with aloes. 
But it is not in Mauritius alone that the industrial 
and commercial world has been moved : our neigh- 
bours of the sister-isle, prompt to follow us in 
our advance, have adopted our processes, and 
have set themselves seriously to work. Less enter- 
prising, less assisted, but as courageous and active as 
those Creoles of Mauritius who were lately dubbed 
' Lotus Eaters,' and whom people in certain circles 
persist in considering as attacked by lethargy, they 
have in their turn, with the help of some of our 
compatriots, acclimatized in their country our 
apparatuses, and are to enter upon a severe but happy 
competition with us. 
If we look further afield, we see that in Ceylon 
they are giving us attention — as witness this letter 
whioh I have received by the mail from the editior 
of the Ceylon Observer at Colombo: — "We should 
deem it a great favour if you would send us a copy 
of your work on Aloe Manipulation. — Signed: A. M. 
& J. Ferguson." It is the same in Australia, the 
Cape, Natal, America. From all quarters our ex- 
periments are followed with interest, and our mode 
of procedure is sought to be adopted. Aloe fibre 
has henceforth its distinct place in commercial 
transactions, and it is to the island of Mauritius 
that modern civilization will be indebted for this 
important article, which will always make its way, 
forcing itself more and more, at first to the brush 
manufactory, to the makers of ropes, to the navy, 
and afterwards to the manufacturers of the finest and 
ohoicest textures. We have the right then of being 
proud of the result obtained, and that of hoping in 
the immense future which is opened out to us. 
Every medal, however, has its obverse : and ours 
lies in the enthusiasm with which the birth of the 
new industry was received. We must be on our 
guard against the danger which may result from a 
hasty and badly-finished manufacture. If it is true 
that we have ended by winning the first place, it is 
no less true that we have only reached it by the force 
of patience and pains. Nowadays, in order to bleach 
the fibre, some have lost sight of this fundameutal 
warning, incessantly formulated by our buyers in 
the English market : " No chemical process." They 
also add, it is true : " The longest, the whitest, and 
the softest possible," and it is to obtain one of these 
desiderata that sulphurous acid has sometimes been 
employed, or chlorine and its derivatives, such as 
the hypochloride or the chloride of calcium, in order 
to bleach the fibre. These means are bad, and they 
cannot but lead to a fall in the price of our manu- 
facture. And the day that we sow distrust in the 
market we shall have great difficulty in restoring the 
paying prices that we are now actually realizing. 
We must guard then against employing any 
chemical means which may be of such a nature as 
to diminish the strength of resistance of our fibres ; 
the greatest attention must also be paid to the pack- 
ing, and it must be seen to that the fibres are not 
put into bales till they are perfectly dry, for the 
least damp causes mould, and consequently the 
depreciation of the artiole, We must, in fact, 
