THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [September 2, 1889. 
persons will buy it, because it demands new machines 
to work it. 1 have been told that many years are 
needed before a new product can attract the attention 
of buyers. I readily believe it. This is ene of the 
laws of commerce. We can see this by comparing 
the prices of jute with the former prices. It is 
plain, that in proportion as these new products 
intrude themselves upon purchasers, the properties 
are gradually taken note of, and their real value 
properly quoted," &o. 
As for the planting, it is such an elementary 
operation that it appears to me idle to speak of it, 
the aloe being a hardy enough plant to be put out at 
any season. Vigorous specimens ought to be chosen 
as much as possible. One can plant all the year 
round, but naturally the rainy season is preferable. 
I have found it answer well at Rouge Terre _ to put 
my young plants into the old cane rows at a distance 
apart of 5 feet, so that an acre can contain 1,600 
to 2,000 plants. As a general rule an aloe plant 
does not die if the root be covered. The plantation 
can be formed of young plants of that year or of 
plants of 2 or 3 years. I learn from my friend G. 
Bourguignon that plantations from seed succeed 
better. The older the aloes when transplanted the 
sooner do they flower ; on the contrary, the younger 
they are the longer do they delay. It is the business 
of the owner to determine whether it is preferable 
to wait two or three years more in order to get 
several crops without having to renew his plantation, 
or whether he will find it more advantageous to 
enter promptly into production. I will add that 
aloes planted from seed or from young seedlings 
take 5 years to attain their complete development, 
whilst, if they are taken large, that is to say from 
18 to 20 inches high, they take only 3 years. On 
an average aloes flower at the end of 7 to 8 years. 
They can then be cut 4 or 5 times before they have 
flowered and it becomes necessary to replace them. 
With the new appliances the return may be esti- 
mated at \\ ton of fibre per acre. At Rouge Terre 
my average has been from 1,700 to 1,800 lb. It has 
often happened that I have exceeded the ton with 
the bad outturn of the machines I used. 
Gentlemen, I have finished. My friend, Albert 
Daruty, has been good enough to furnish me with 
some notes on the botanical part of my work. My 
brother, Regis de Ohazal, engineer of the Forges 
and Foundries, has, on his part, consented to do 
the technical portion. This is the reason why I 
did not enter into a more complete description of 
the new machine of which I have spoken to you. 
On the other hand these descriptions may seem to 
resemble each other, especially in what concerns 
the ' scratcher ' ; on such a subject one cannot be 
too exact. My brother speaks as a specialist, I as 
a cultivator. I have scarcely spoken to you on any- 
thing that was not personal to myself ; he describes 
to you the principal known machines ; you will 
appreciate his essay. 
I will say, in conclusion, to my colleagues, to my 
friends, to the proprietors of the coast lands : Plant. 
Four years are necessary for cultivation. In four 
years you will have the rudiments of a prosperity 
well earned. Establish your plantations around your 
factories so as to take advantage of your network 
of roads, and do not, in order to try and get returns 
sooner, go and set up your machinery in the midst 
of a field of naturally grown aloes. The industry is 
fixed and stable. It is a great mistatke to believe 
that it will be an advantage to render it nomadic. 
Plant then, and be proud of the progress realized by 
our compatriots on this Mauritius soil, so liberal to 
him who knows how to work it wisely. 
EVENOK DE ClIAZAL. 
fit. Antoine, January 1882. 
NOTES. 
Here are the notes which I mentioned above, and 
which 1 owe to the kindness of my friend, Albert 
Daruty : — 
The following species are found in Mauritius in a 
wild state : — 
(1) Agave Americana L. (Blue Aloe). 
(2) Agave Angustifolia Hano (Aloe with small 
leaves). 
(3) Fonreroya Gigantea Vent. (Green Aloe). 
(4) Fourcroya Gigantea Var. Villemetiana 
Roem (Cabbage or Malagasy Aloe). 
Fourcroya Gigantea Ventenat. 
The genus Fourcrcea, of the family of Amaryllides, 
separated from the genus Agave, was founded by 
"Venenat, and dedicated by him to the celebrated 
French chemist Fourcroy. 
This genus was adopted by de Jussieu and other 
botanists, and Endlicher, in adopting it, gave it 
its true orthography Fourcroya, others formerly 
having written Fourcroea, Fourcroea, and Furcrcea. 
Ventenat in dividing the genus Agave gave to the 
agave foetida the name of Fourcrosa Gigantea : this 
is the species which now occupies us. 
This plant was introduced into Europe in 1690, 
and it was only brought from Brazil to Mauritius 
towards the end of the last century by Father 
Series, almoner. 
Aublet, who gives us this information, says lhat 
he cultivated it in the garden of the Redout ; it 
sent forth, he says, a huge branching stalk which, 
instead of flowering, was loaded with a great quantity 
of bulbs.* 
The type of the species known in Mauritius under 
the name of green aloe is then a native of South 
America and the Antilles. It is a plant with a stalk 
sometimes very short, sometimes very tall ; the 
leaves are erect, numerous, rigid, dense, slightly 
groved, and disposed in rosaceous form at the 
summit of the stalk ; they are glossy, of a bright 
green, about 2| meters long [8-20 feet] by 15 to 
18 centimetres broad [6 to 7 inches] exhaling a bad 
odour when crushed (whence the name Agave 
Fatida). The stalk is very tall, paniculated, rising 
to a height of 10 or 11 metres [33 to 36 feet] with 
a diameter of 15 to 20 centimetres [6 to 8 inches] 
at the base. Flowers j endant, white, having a bad 
odour, with filaments longer than the folioles of the 
perianth. Perianth persistent with six folioles 
multinerved, exposed, whose 3 interior ones or 
petals (are) larger and more delicate, — stamens 6, 
inserted in the depth of the flower, — anthers linear, 
oblong, sloping to the summit and two-lobed at the 
base, fixed by the middle of the back ; varies with 
three multiovuled loeules ; style erect, thick at the 
base, fistulose, longer than the stamens ; stigma 
obtuse with 3 angles or 3 boles ; capsule ? (not yet 
observed). 
The plant here multiplies itself solely by buds, 
which are developed on the stalk, often in such a 
great quantity, that it is bent down by the weight. 
The variety Villemetiana, which seems to have 
developed itself in Mauritius, does not differ from the 
type but by its leaves which are larger, greener, and 
less thorny, often even unarmed. 'Ihis variety 
must have originated in the high, moist, and fertile 
spots. A. Daruty. 
And now for the description of the machines, by 
my brother, Regis de Chazal, engineer at the Office 
of the Forges and Foundries. 
The juice of the aloe is strongly acid on a litmus 
paper ; it attacks iron and dissolves it very rapidly. 
It does not contain tannin, or at least in a very in- 
* Fusee Aublet, Histoire des Plantes de la Guyane 
Francaise, Paris, 1775, vol. I, p. 305. 
