Dec. i, 1894.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
377 
a strict Government monopoly. The cultivation and 
manufacture is now quite free, but the improvement 
in quantity and quality has not quite fulfilled the 
expectations which we e formed of the results of 
this new departure. 
In reply to Mr. A. Rodgers as to the nature of the 
character in which th« native laguage was written, 
the lecturer said that it was not known to be 
connected with any known character, and in reply 
to another question Mr. MacPherson sta'ed that 
there were very few good booles about the Philippines 
in Eng ish, but several in Spanish. 
The Chairman, in proposing a vote of thanks to 
Mr. MacPherson, quoted from a recent French official 
report, that the irade of Manila had suffered by 
recent changes, bu-. tobacco was improved, the culti- 
vation of coffee on the increase, and agriculture was 
good, especially hemp. The same French leportalso 
mentions the improvements n Manila : the harbour 
being enlarg d, railway const' uct on, and the intro- 
duction of the electric light. If titles were gc anted 
to the land and facilities given for mining, no doubt 
the country would develop. However, a large part of 
the trade and shipping is English. — London and 
China Express. 
PRODUCTION OF FIBRE FROM THE 
DWARF PALM IN ALGERIA. 
The French Monde Economiqne says that the dwarf 
pa'm, which furnishes considerable quantities of fibre 
grows in great profusion in Algeiia, and is one 
of the principal obstacles to the clearing of the land, 
so thickly does it grow and so difficult to pull tip ; 
its roots, in shape resembling carrots, penetrate into 
the ground to the depth of a yard or more, and wh- n 
its t-t-rn is only cut, it sprouts out again almost 
inim diate y. As its name indicates, this pa'm is 
to y rmall, and cau only attain a certain he : ght when 
protected, as in the Arab c meteries, or example. 
Various uses are made of this p aut ; its root-r serve: 
as combustibles, a light kind ot coal being made out 
of them, and the natives have employed the fibres 
that they cxtiacte'l from the leaves and the etems, 
mixed with camel-hair or wool, in the manufacture 
of stuffs fjr tents; wi h the leaf itself they make 
baskets, mats, ha s, ians, bags, and ether articles. 
Considera^lb a tention is now b iug pa d by the 
authorities to the encouragement of this industry in 
Algeria, as, in the first p ace, it affords to the Arabs 
an easy meai s of making a livi: g, and, in ti e second, 
the land is thus rapidly cleared of this parasite. The 
idea of embarking in the industry of fibre pro uction 
from the dwarf pa'm, originated, a ew jears ago, 
with a landed proprietor living in Cheragas about 
eight miles from Algiers. At the pr sent time there 
are, in Algeria, numerous establishments which are 
devoted to t is branch of industrial enterprise. Tin 
principal factories are those of Averising, Elailroun, 
Chiffa, Duperre' et Douera, and the exports of late 
years have- exhibited a decid d increas . In 1880, the 
quantity of fibre exported from Alge ia amounted to 
9,000,0u0 kilogrammes; in 1885 to l. r >,000,U00 k lo- 
grammes, and in 18'.ll to 10,000,000 of lsi) grammes. 
In preparing the fibie, the foil wing is the system 
adopted. The leaves are plucked by the Arabs, and 
CBrried into the courtyard of the factory in a green 
state, at a price of tweQty francs per ton. As they 
are at once used, and as they fear neither the run 
nor the sun, i' is only neces-ary to pile them on the 
floor in a heap. The first operation consists cf 
sorting, which is effected by women and children. 
The weeds a:e removed from the stems which fre- 
quently adhere to them, aud t' e broken or drie 1 up 
leaves are cut away. Another operation consBts in 
combing ihe leaves, or rath-r iu carding them. Tbis 
ia effected as follows. A workman home tightly iu 
hia right hand a handful of green leaves which he 
applioa to a small carding machine. This machine 
consists of a drum on which some na Is have boen 
roughly fixed, and ia constantly turning with groat 
rapidit) ; to protect the hands of the workman it is 
encased iu wood with only an. opening sul&cieutly 
large to admit the leaves. As it is necesaary that 
these leaves should be damped during ihe work, a 
tap is placed above the drum, from which a constant 
stream of water falls upon the leaves. With this 
mo-t p'imitive sys em, a workman ia able to card 
from five to s ; x huudred kilogrummes of leaves a day. 
When the leaves have been combeJ at both ends, they 
present ihe appearance of a handful of rough and 
short fibre. Tuey are then dried, and, after a certain 
preparation, are ready f.r use in s'uffing chair?, 
couches, etc. To curl the fibre, a workman tak*s np 
a quantity cf carded haves ami applies it to a b«-nt 
hook, fixed upon the axle of a wheel, which is turned 
by a c ild. The first fibres accumulate round the 
hook, and wind thems Ives round it; the, latter, which 
is constantly turning, draws in the other, and the 
workman recrdes from ihe wheel while grinding the 
fibres with hia band. Th/i latter soon constitute a 
sort of cor ', one end of which is fixe.i to the book, 
the o her held firmly and horizontally by t' e work- 
man. At this stage of the proceeding, the child who 
turns the wheel stops and detaches one extremity of 
the cord, which he returns to the workman, after 
having passed it round the hook. In this operation 
the cord is subject to the natural impulse of twisting 
and rolls upon it3e f, so that it is only n. cessary 
to fix the ends eo that it canuot come unrolled. The 
fibre is kei t in th ; s c ndition for several weeks, and 
is then untwisted, and is then considered to be 
suffici, ntly curled. Afr c-in fibre is employed in its 
natural state or dye I. In the latter c«se, the fibres 
are passed through various solutions o sulphate of 
iron aud Pgwood, then curlpd, aud again 1 lunged 
into the soluti.n. — Journal of the Society of Arts. 
UNIT1CD STATUS BANANA IMPORTATIONS. 
Garden and Forest (New York) says: — "Thirty-six 
years aao the steamer "North Star" brought to this 
port ft 0 bunches of bananas. The New York market 
had never before received anything like that quantity 
at once. * * * As late as 1S05 the market was glutted 
by as small a supply as twelve bunches, which arrived 
here in June, when strawberries were abundant, and 
the fruit was left on the hands of the enterprising 
importers. * * * It was not until 1879 that the 
first steamers were chartered as fruit-carriers for the 
West Indian trade, but the business has developed 
so rapidly that for the twelve months ending with 
July 1 last not less than 133 steamers were engaged 
in carrying bananas between the West Indies, Central 
America, Aspinwall and the United States, aud aa 
many as twenty-eight have discharged here in a 
week. Sailing vessels are too slo v for this traffic, 
and the trip by steam from Jamaica requires but 
seven and a half days, and from Aspinwall a diy 
longer. Three lines of steamers, comprising twelve 
vessels, make a regular trip every ten days between 
Colon, Pueito Limon, Jamaica and New Y rk, 120 
more being chartered by brokers or run on the 
owners' account. Norway p oyides a majority of the 
vesselg, which range from 400 to 2,000 tons burden, 
and lib- flags of Great Britain, the United States, 
Spain and Denmark also appear in the service. 
"The trade has already grown, until in 1892 the 
receip s of bananas iu this port amounted to 3,716,625 
bunches. In July the highest figures of the current 
year were reached, 567,067 bunches having come to 
New York du ing that month. The largest New 
York supplies are now drawn from Jamaica, 1,055,876 
bunches having been received here from that Island 
during the year. The Cuban ports, Banes, Sama, 
Gibra and Cabanico, where the trade has mora 
recently been established, together sent about 600,000 
bunches last year, the remainder of the supply com- 
ing from Aspinwall, Honduras, Nicaragua aud Costa 
Rica. Besides these large importations by New York 
nearly 2,000,000 bunches went to 1'hiladelphia last 
year and almost as many more to Boston, while 
Baltimore, Savannah aud Mobile are also large con- 
sumers. New Orleans is, however, the most impor- 
tant market iu the country, the enormous quantity 
of 1,183,351 banehes haviDg passed into that city 
from Couttal Amerigo during last year, tha-ee-citiarLeis, 
