45^ THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST, [Tanuarv i, 1890 
which ia just the fibre of a species of aloe, practi- 
cally identical with the green aloe (Fourcroya 
gigantea.) which although cot indigenous to Ge\lon, 
flourishes exceedingly here, being easily propagated 
from the multitudes of little plants which actually 
produce leaves and root bulbs before they drop from 
the flower stems, The passage regarding the sisal 
hemp is as follows : — 
Dr. Hanson then exhibited to the meeting some 
specimens of the Fibre known as Sisal Hemp. The 
specimens were of a very strong and silky des- 
cription. They were subsequently examined by a 
well-known Rope-Manufacturer and pronounced by him 
to be of a very superior quality, for which there was 
a great demand. The plants from which this fibre 
was extracted grew wild very near the Company's 
Property; there is a great demand for it in the markets 
of the United States, where it is used extensively in 
the manufacture of ropes and cords, haviDg a reputa- 
tion there coming very little below that of Manilla 
Hemp. 
Hitherto the supply of Sisal Hemp for America as well 
as almost the whole world has come from Yucatan 
in Mexico, the planters in which State have exercised 
practically a mompoly in its production, and have 
grown very wealthy inconsequence. Tnefibri- is there 
extractid by hand, native labour being very plentiful 
and cheap, Curiously enough no machine was ever 
discovered for the extraction of the Fibre until this 
present year, and no country where Sisal could be grown 
has ever been able to compete in labour with the 
cheap producers in Yucatan. A machine has recently- 
been manufactured and planted [patented ? — Ed.] 
in Jacksonville, Florida, which is perfect for the ex- 
traction of the Sisal Fibre and the specimens produced 
were extracted by Dr. Hanson himself with one of 
these Machines. The result ot this discovery has been 
to open up a new Industry which was not contem- 
plated whan this Company was first formed. The 
Sisal plant grows luxuriantly iu South Florida, and 
unlike Tobacco and some other crops, it is not 
affected by the season; wet or dry, rain or sunshine, 
it was all the same to the Sisal plant. Dr, Hanson 
stated that at the lowest computation, the cultivation 
of Sisal would m two years from the time of plant- 
ing yield a net profit of at least £40 to the acre, 
that here were no " ifs or ands " about it, as was 
the case with Tobacco, because when once the plants 
were bet out they would flourish without being affected 
by the weather; he gave figures upon which he based 
this result, and they are set out at the end. 
ESTIMATE OF THE YIELD PEE ACRE OF THE 
SISAL HEMP PLANT. 
2,240 Plants will be planted to the Acre. 
At 2 years, 25 leaves per plant will be cut, weighing 
upon an average 1£ lb. each. 
At 3 years, 40 leaves per plant will be cut, weighing 
upon an average 2 1b. each, and so for the next 4 
years, when the plantation must be renewed. 
The leaves will yield 6 per cent of dry Merehantab'e 
Fibre 
At 2 years:— 1 Acre with 2,240 plants will yield 
84,000 lb. of green leaves or 5,040 lb. of Fibre 
At 3 years, 179,200 lb, of green 
leaves or .. .. 10,952 lb, of Fibre. 
Total. 15,992 
or on an average of about S,000 lb. a year. 
8,000 lb. of fibre at 8 cents a lb. (a 
very low price) .. .. 640 dollars 
Deduct cost of Marketing at 3 cents 
a lb. .. .. .. 240 dollars 
4U0 „ or £80 
It will therefore be seen that Dr. Hanson's estimato 
of £ 10 is well within the mark. 
Mr. Cummins writes with reference to the above : — 
"In seudiDg you this I wish to draw your abtension 
to what is said of the machine recently invented for 
extracting the fibre of the Sisal plant, which is, I 
believe, a species of aloe common to the hillcountry 
of Ceylon. It may bo the poor Walapane villagers will 
Bee brighter days cultivating this plant in their aban- 
doned coffee gardens." 
The statement that no machine to extract the 
fibre was invented until this year is incorrect, for 
in Mauritius machines have been invented and 
have been at work for a good many years. An 
elaborate paper on the machines and the industry 
will be found, translated from the French, in the 
Tropical Agriculturist. In the sugar isle the aloe 
fibre industry haj become very important; and we 
should be glad to get details respecting the best clean- 
ing machine in use there now, — In the Bahamas, too, 
the industry, which was fostered by air Henry Blake, 
has made such progress that a New Zealand paper 
writes in this wise : — 
Wellington, Nov. 2nd. — The Agent-General has for- 
warded a letter and specimen of a new species of sisal 
which is especially grown in the sterile soil, of the 
Bahamas, where the Governor of the colony is doing 
all he can to foster its cultivation. Sir H. D. Bell fears 
it will develop into a formidable enemy ot New Zea- 
land flax, as the cost of the dressed fibre hardly amounts 
to L10 per ton, but the specimen forwarded, which will 
be sent to DunediD, is very rough indeed, and fit appar- 
ently for coarse matting and cordage only. 
If only grubs could be successfully combated, 
aloes could be grown on hill patanas, too poor for 
other culture. But profits of £40 an acre cannot 
be expected. If only one-fourth of that sum could 
be realized, cultivators ought and no doubt would 
be satisfied. In the meantime, we trust Ceylon 
merchants and planters are not to lag behind 
those of Mauritius and the West Indies, seeing 
that this island has been described as " a paradise 
for fibre-yielding plants." 
. — . 
Mangos. — Mr. Maries, well-known as a collector in 
Japan for Messrs. Veitch, has now prepared a work 
on Mangos. Mr. Maries is in charge of the Durbhunga 
Gardens, where he has collected some 150 of the 
better kinds of Mangos, which are propagated by 
grafting.— Gardeners' Chronicle. 
Lily of the Valley. — The Illustration Horticole 
tells us that the Silesian Railway briugs into Berlin 
every evening during the season truck-loads of these 
flowers. Each wagon contains thirty baskets, each 
basket contains 300 bundles, each composed of 100 
stalks, that is to say 900,000 per wagon. The little 
bouquets sold in the streets comprise ten stems, so 
that each wagon contains 90,000 of them. — Gardeners' 
Chronicle. 
" Kew Bulletin. " — The November number con- 
tains the Phylloxera regulations at the Cape, already, 
alluded to in these columns; an article on the collec- 
tion and preservation of fleshy fungi, by Dr. Cookery 
notes on the Oil-Palm (Elaeis guineensis) inLabuan; 
in which the unfortunate consequences of a 
"solution of continuity," or change of policy, when 
a new governor is appointed, are commented on. 
The Oil Palm was introduced into Labuan several 
years ago with successful results, but the trees 
under a new regime were grubbed up, and the work 
has to be begun again. — Gardeners' Chronicle. 
Copra.— In a recent issue ot Notes and Queries Mr. 
D.D. Gilder wrote as follows : — 
The following coincidence in the vernacular name of 
the kernel of the coconut in two oiffereut languages of 
the two hemispheres, viz. Samoan and Gujarat 
(spoken in India) appears to be strange and deserves a 
place in '■ N. and Q.' The Gujarati word is hopru, 
while the Samoan word is copra, as will be seen trom 
the following lines taken from the New York Phrenolo- 
gical Journal for March, 1889, p. 110: "The chief 
product of the islands — in fact, the only staple — is 
covra, which is the dried meat of the coconut, and from 
wh'ch coconut oil is expressed." 
That copra is a Samoan word we take leave to doubt. 
The Sinhalese is koppara, and the word having 
been adopted by Europeans was doubtless carried 
by thorn to the islands of the Pacific. 
