September 2, 1889 ] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST, 
i47 
endeavour always to produce a manufacture of the 
first quality which shall reserve to us a rank which 
is soon to be hotly disputed, and not forget that the 
recommendations of the commercial houses which 
serve us as intermediaries are invariably to make the 
longest, the whitest, and the softest possible, and to 
avoid the use of chemical processes. 
I have nothing to add to what I have said in this 
pamphlet on the recent improvements wrought in 
the apparatuses for extraction. It has not come to 
my knowledge that these have been sensibly modified 
in their construction since the day when I drew atten- 
tion to them. The progress which may have been 
realized in this regard depends above all on the 
careful cultivation and the pains taken with the 
manufacture. Such as they are these machines are 
sufficient, and they can await the improvements 
which will not fail to suggest themselves, especially 
nowadays when so many interests are engaged 
in agriculture. 
I must, however, mention the experiments that 
have been made in this direction. Several new 
machines are in the course of construction, and I 
myself have an interest in two. However, I do 
not believe the time has yet come to speak of 
them in detail; It is enough that it be known 
that we are not asleep, and that we are aware 
that the statu quo in the matter of commerce is 
equivalent to an abdication. The law of progress 
finds its application here as elsewhere. From 
America there has lately come to us a new 
maohine, which is under trial at this moment. 
It is as usual a wheel armed with paddles which 
sorape upon a surface sometimes movable, some- 
times fixed, and one which does not differ from 
any others except in very unimportant points. 
Finally, I wish it to be clearly understood, that, 
of what has been done in the way of inventions, 
our merchants possess that which is the most 
simple, the least costly, and which calls for the 
least exertion, while accomplishing the greatest 
amount of work. It only remains for me to wish 
them the confidence which commands success, and 
the perseverance which insures it. 
Evenob de Chazal. 
St. A.ntoine, 30th June 1882. 
Mr. President and gentlemen, members of the 
Chamber of Agriculture, 
The attention of the Chamber has been lately, 
and on several occasions, directed towards a new 
industry in the development of which I have 
taken a share large enough to believe myself justi- 
fied in making it the object of a communication, 
especially at a time when an important improve- 
ment has just been introduced into it : I refer 
to the extraction of the fibre of aloes. 
The proceedings of this Chamber have frequently 
made mention of the experiments which have 
been tried in this direction by some of our com- 
patriots, and have many times included letters 
from the present Director of our Gardens, of whose 
devotion to our interests you are aware. In 
fact, during the voyage which ha has just made 
round the world in order to supply our impover- 
ished sugar industry with new species of canes, 
Mr. Home has several limes given us information 
regarding the aloe, its future as a commercial 
r>'>nt, and the possibility of extracting the 
libre from it economica ly, by adopting known 
processes, especially those employed in New 
Zealand in the manipulation of the Phormium 
tenax ; it was he also, who quite recently put 
us into communication with Mr. Wilson, a London 
engineer, to whom you have sent as a delegate 
our compatriot, Mr. George Mayer. You have 
boon informed of the result of hia proceedings. 
Mr, George Mayer is not a member of this 
Chamber, but he is interested in the future of 
aloes, and he is well enough up in the question 
which engages us to have been able to appreciate 
the progress realized by the maohines which Mr. 
Wilson is constructing for Mexico, and whioh have 
been offered to us. It is apparent from the report 
sent by Mr. Mayer to the Chamber that these 
maohines are not in any point superior to those that 
we already possess. 
But, gentlemen, while we were seeking on all sides 
for that perfection so much desired, it has just 
modestly come to light here, in the very midst of us, 
realizing all our aspirations, and finally established 
in a durable and definite fashion the industry whioh 
for several years has been dragging itself painfully 
along. 
It is needful that I should tell you in detail how 
this revolution has been accomplished, because you 
will see in it, as I have done, the source of an in- 
crease to the publio wealth. I do not pretend to 
present before you a complete work : my ambition is 
limited to collecting the scattered materials, to put 
in order the facts whioh have come to my knowledge, 
to fix undefined lines, to bring to your notice, above 
all, those amongst us who have been the first to 
enter a track, henceforth widely open to all, whioh 
has endowed our country with a new element of 
prosperity. 
I. At the head of these men of energy, whom 
numerous failures at the outset have not disheartened, 
and whose perseveranoe has contributed to the 
foundation of the industry, my friend, George 
Bourguignon, naturally presents himself, the oldest 
surely of all those who have engaged in aloes in 
Mauritius. Although he has not been directly mixed 
up in the recent experiments whioh have resulted in 
the improvement I have pointed out to you, it can 
be said that 'nut for him, but for his rare pertinacity, 
which has ended by triumphing over all obstacles, 
our country would still be in the gropings of the early 
days. Bourguignon, however, is not the only one 
who has occupied himself with aloes : there are 
others, not less energetic, not less patient than he, 
although of not such long standing, who have like 
him incontestable rights to the gratitude of posterity. 
I will cite, simply as they come to my pen, the 
Vallys, the Byders, the Lecontes, the Trouchets, the 
d'Unienvilles. And Cazotet finally, Cazotet, the 
Lavignac of aloes, the pertinacious seeker whom 
nothing has discouraged, not even the loss of a 
little fortune entirely consecrated to the servioe of 
his adopted country, a fortune which is on the road 
to building up anew on those same aloes whioh 
have twice ruined him. It is to the painful toil of 
these courageous men that we are today indebted for 
seeing our colony endowed with an industry, the rival 
of sugar, and destined to restore the value of our 
coast lands, the extent of which amounts to many 
hundreds of thousands of aores. These seekers had 
faith in their final sucoess. Behold them rewarded 
at last. You will not begrudge them the tribute 
of praise whioh is their legitimate due. 
II. Gentlemen, I would lengthen this essay 
considerably if I undertook to give you the history 
of all the maohines that have been invented to 
succeed in extracting the fibre contained in this 
wild plant. I cannot, however, refrain from 
mentioning to you that the first thoughts were turned 
to the mills in use for crushing the canes. Here is 
what the illustrious Cossigny says on the subjeot in 
his remarkable work entitled " Des moyen* 
d' 'ameliorations proposes aux habitants des Colonies, 
Paris, year XI. This book, whioh displays an 
erudition as varied as it is extensive, has now 
becomo very scaroe. 
