8i4 
THE TROFlOltt. JW3Wt?01TURiaT. 
[June 2, 1890 
buffalo-milk, and in as much as Hindoos will not 
use any animal fat, and Mohammedans avoid the 
use of fog's lard, this ghee is the only article in use 
throughout India for culinary purposes, and being in 
such large demand it is by no means cheap when pur- 
chased in the bazzars, Now, in tl e_ newly introduced 
coconut fat, misnamed butter, there is at once a better 
and a cheaper artiole for Hindoo and Mussulman use. 
Being a purely vegetable product, it is commended 
to the scrupulous Hindoo and the prejudiced Moham- 
medan. and cannot fail to come into extensive use 
throughout India, and when we say this we say a great 
deal, because we have to deal with a population of two 
hundred millions. If it can be produced by German 
Semists at Mannheim at half the coat of butter, after 
incurring the charges on importing the buky raw mate- 
rial from the Bast, how much more economy may be 
studied by its manufacturers in .localities where the 
ooconnt is produced in such avish abundance ? The 
production of the nut may be indeflmtely extended on 
the tioorest soil in both the East and West Indies, 
offering employment and profit in our own colonies and 
dependencies.-'' "'"'Ion Advertiser. 
NEW INDUSTRIES IN JAMAICA. 
yL io f no earlv in the day to oontemplate the good 
»«H from the proposed Exhibition. All Exhibi- 
to resnlt from ne p v Exhibition held in 
tions, °™™f™^Zd as their motive and their re- 
^SES of the resources and trade, not 
Stl * ^ i S es in which they were held, but also 
^hl i^Sto^wWdh participated in them. An 
5%&*K2^k P^ucts that by the ap* 
not simpiy j " Y be rendered of great commer- 
p hcation of , B J n Q C ° m n * Vich there are 5 for the most 
C,a \ Va ^, Pt fl whTch the commercial world is just now 
part products ' WhW ne material for m anufac- 
eager to obtain, either a r of im ved manu . 
tur ng P ur P°^' h 0 ' he f ; r may be applied. At a meeting 
factures to wh cb they may . Jfo d &n accQUn e t 
of the Committee for th u « ^ ed 
of which appeared I in a , recen , b e sent out 
out that among the « acb ^ e od one8 for the 
f VntaWo^ tL preparation 
extraction of fibres from the 
ol nores, hs wei banana, silk-grass, penguin, 
stems of 'amie Blanta,n, Dan > , * p k 
bowstring hemp, pneapple ^W . ^ ^ 
of which are t .f^ r a e d I ion W here lies the materials 
^"^rthe^ndustS of the world is waiting to get 
of which the industry 01 
possession. 9^ er o , pa amai0a in these products, and 
equally as rich as Jam oa ' ^ ^ 
rte 9 rpSmg h rn turning these things to 
a °rmaica has for a long time been ^alking about her 
fibrous products ;^t for over a q ^ 
8 he bas done no better than > for 8is&1 
colony h"«^7 a English market; and 
hemp, worth £50 a ton in B ^ ^ 
another is seeking to do the sa * 
Gras^, said to be worth even find that in the 
now covers large areas as ^^sion of others of its 
every part of the Mio other scientific re- 
order. OniheslretiRthof his an 00Q 
ports, ■ company wss formal tn ^ cap , 
to work the enterpme It wd n"»^ jca haa 
bago has gone ahead to , do ^*».* n or more . 
been talking about fo th /also f rom a dozen 
1 ibrcs, not from fli*£asB_aloM^ varioua 
S&SCft "bu't WSSSSth. exhibits, in which 
our people have always felt great pride, there has never 
been any practical repult. The samples have always 
been pronounced to be excellent ; but beyond that en- 
terprize has never gone ; as if people were only con- 
tent to know, or content to have the world acknow- 
ledge that Jamaica abounds in fibre producing plants 
that if turned to account might realize wealth for the 
country. 
The Silk Grass (Furcrcea Cubensis) is found in differ- 
ent parts of Jamaioa, and there is hardly any part of 
the island where, if encouraged, it would not grow. It 
should be of interest to us to observe and carefully note 
w hat Tobago is doing, and especially note the class of 
machinery which sbe employes to bring ubout the 
success of the enterprize upon which she his entered. 
The great drawback hitherto has been to obtain JU ^J 
able machinery. The fcurruounting of this d lficultv is 
one of the benefits to result from our Exhibition to 
which we look forward. It will he the inter eg t 0 f 
inventors and manufacturers t 0 send out on exhibition 
machines that may be applied to our wants, i D whfch 
case, not silk grass only but many other fibre yielding 
plants as well, which are just now troubleso me weeds, 
might be turned to account. The Dagger Rn d the 
Penguin have been referred to. Just now they 
have been allowed to over-run hundreds, perhaps 
thousands of acres in parts of the country adapted 
to their growth. The only use to which they are 
applied is in making fences^ for which Penguin is 
extensively employed, otherwise they are absolutely 
worthless and pre-occupy the land to the absolute ex- 
clusion of every other description of growth. A fibre 
is obtainable from both the<>e plants f mm which fabrics 
of a delicate texture might be manufactured. 
But when we speak of the Silk Grass, the Penguin 
and the Dagger, we mention but a limited number of 
the fibre-yielding plants that are indigenous to this 
country ; and then, perhaps, not the readiest and most 
available. As a few minutes conversation with the 
intelligent Manager of the Hope Botanic Garden would 
soon disclose, there are numerous fibre-yielding plants 
known only to botanists abounding here, in addition 
to those that are generally known. Mr. Harris has 
himself been giving much attention to the aubjeot. 
But we need not go beyond the Banana for the pre- 
sent. It haa long ago been demonstrated that the fibre 
of the banapa is applicable to rope making and other 
purposes. It has been tested and found acceptable by 
manufactures, but there has come in the usual ques- 
tion by which our people have so often been stureped: 
" How much of it can you supply "? It is feared that 
Jamaica never succeeds in supplying other than 
samples. And yet to be able to put a large quantity 
of banana fibre in the market should not be 
attended with any difficulty, seeing that we 
are now growing bananas by the million for 
exportation. Each plant, or sucker, of the banana pro- 
duces but a single bunoh of fruit, and when this 
comes to maturity the stem has to be cut down, for 
it never bears a second time ; but in its place from 
four to, in favorable districts, seven young shoots 
spring up. Those who have studied the subject have 
demonstrated that the fibre is the more valuable part 
of the plant, and that if enterprize were fairly di- 
rected towards it, the fruit would become of entirely 
secondary value, and it would be worth while to 
cultivate bananas, not for the fruit, but for the fibre. 
But the fruit, which has proved such a valuable 
resouroe during the long depression of the sugar 
industry, addiDg thousands upon thousands of pounds 
to the income of the island, is all that is turned to 
account ; and the millions of stems, rioh in fibre, 
that have been out down every season have only been 
used as manure for the young plants. 
It is time that onr people begin to think seriously 
of turning waste materials to account, and there is 
no waste material of greater promise than that 
which is obtainable from our fibre-yielding plants. 
If we are not up and doing, we shall find ourselves 
outstripped in the race by even little Tobago, 26 
miles long and 6 or 7 miles broad, with a pii>ulaticn 
little more than half of that of the city of Kingston, 
—Jamaica Gleaner. 
