594 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[March 1, 1902- 
for preparing the fibre ; others because such a large 
water supply is needed. lu view of these objections, 
we place before our readers the ptatements of Mr. 
Qnenuel, in the Jouvual of the Jamaica Agricultural 
Society. That gentleinaa says : — 
1 have seeii, with a deep regret, some persons re- 
jecting at first the idea of cultivati)ig fibre plants in 
Trinidad as requiring too much capital and too costly 
machinery. 
This is a great mistake. Yukatan is there as a 
proof of it, isecause the Indians of that country 
export now more than 100,000 tons, prepared with 
a very rough machine called " raepador, " n wheel 
of 4 feet (;iameter, working at 160 revolutions a 
minute. The cost of it cannot be, with horse gear, 
above ISO dolhirs. That machine is easy to move 
from one place to another It wastes a certain amount 
of materia], and is slow at work; but it is not the 
first time that the primitive appliance of the pea- 
santry has succeeded better than costly machines 
and big capital, with their heavy interests and 
apnuities. The raepador gives net .33.5 lb, in ten 
hours. A machine for working three-quarters of a 
ton would cost, with steam-engine and the buildings to 
correspond, £1,200 at least, when five raspadores would 
not cost more than £150. 
A steam-engine would not be moveable and could 
not be economically established where the area 
under cultivation would be less than 1,000 acres. 
I take my data from various reports from Dr. 
Morris, Imperial Commissioner of Agriculture, Bar- 
bados, and from Mr. Richard Dodge, of the Wash- 
ington Fibre Investigation Committee on account of 
the Government of the United States. 
From them I come to the conclusion that the 
fibre plant gives a hemp of a value of £30 a ton in 
London which I reduce to £14 a ton after allowing 
for discount, commission, and freight, and also for 
cultivation and packing. This is less tliij-n the 
amount given in the reports referred to. 
I take for planting five rows in 36 feet — that ia 
to soy, four at 6 feet distance and the fifth at 12. 
I put the plant 6 feet apart in the rows, This 
gives me more than l.OOG plants to an acre. Each plant 
at four years givfs forty leaves a year of a weight 
of 60 lb., of which 4 per cent, turns into fibre, dried 
and white, or 21b. of fibie to a plant, or 2,000 lb. 
an acre. £14 a ton is moro than 3 cents a lb. I 
allow only 2J cents a lb. to make 50 dollars aa 
acre. Thus an acre produciug net 60 dollars yields 
double the results of 200 cacao trees on an acre, 
at 10 bags per 1 000 trees at 12 dollars net (when 
6a3. the London market quotation) or 2 bags, 12 
dollars=24 dollars. It is a great deal more than 20 
tons of sugar-canes to an acre at 93. a ton, leav- 
ing probably not more than Is. a ton to the cane far- 
mer, or £1 an acre, 
If the acre gives 2,fi00 lb. a year, and a raspador 
prepares some 'd'dO lb. a day — 100,000 lb. a year of 
SCO days — it will require 50 acres to produce suffi- 
cient fibre for one raspador's work in one year ; 
6 raspadores for 250 acres; 20 for 1,000 acres. 
But what strikes me more is that I noticed that 
on all the sugar plantations, all the cacao estates, 
everywhere oa Crown lands, there is a large extent 
of useless land, when not first-class. Well, the fibre 
plants grow nearly everywhere except on absolutely 
barren lands ; and immediately everyone can foresee 
v/hat is the future of Trinidad when all lands, unless 
barren, will be cultivated with plants yielding double 
what cacao gives. One thousand acres of land for 
Bugar-canes, giving 1,500 tons of sugar, will require 
(if I do not make a mistake) £37,000 worth of 
machinery, at least ; and 1,000 acres of land for fibre 
plants will require only twenty raspadores costing 
£600, and will give yearly at 50 dollars, or £10 per 
ftcro, £10,0Up sterling to repay cost of land and of 
^{itracta, 
But no industry can be eatablishod with safety wit 
it is not ttarted with economy and perseverance, or 
if anyone is discouraged because purchasers do not 
come from abroad to buy the first lb. before it ia 
ready. I believe that this, and five or six years' 
gambling in the London Exchange, have stopped 
the first attempt made in Tobago and in Bahamas 
some ten years ago. But the machines have been 
greatly improved during the last four years ; the 
prices, sfter fioctuatiug during the lime of speculation 
between £16 and £75, have become steady at £30, 
and the plants, ten years old now, are everywhere 
giving sprouts from iheir roots and seeds from their 
poles. 
The Agricultural Society is being called upon to 
decide regarding the introduction of hard-working 
immigrants from Teneriffe. Can we find a better 
basis for settlement by free companies of these free 
people, in a free country? Profitable contracts could 
be offered to them on lauding at the Quay, at a 
rate of 25 dollars an acre— 5 dollars after brushing, 
5 dollars after planting, and 15 dollars on delivery 
on forth year. Each contractor would not X'eceive 
more than 12 acres to be planted in three years — 
4 acres a year. As there is very little trouble in 
cultivating the fibre plant when it is a year and a 
half oUI, every year each contractor could receive 
some 4 acres more. In five years he would have 
planted 20 acres, and from the fouith to the ninth 
year he would receive 500 dollars, whereas 12 acres 
in cacao, or 2Av,0 trees, would give him only 4b0 
dollars in the same time [1 dollar = 4s. 2d. 2 cents 
= ld.] — Queensland Agricultural Journal, 
THE RAISIN INDUSTRY OF CALI- 
FORNIA. 
The average annual conenmption of raisins in the 
United States for the past five years, has been about 
80,000,000 pounds, or not Jar from one pound per head 
of population. Practically the total supply was pro- 
duced in the United States, a supply which only » 
short time ago was met wholly by importation. No 
variety of native American grape has yet been deve- 
loped s-uitable for the preparation ol raieine. Over 
twenty-five years ago, choice varieties or vines of the 
raisin grape were introduce'^ into California from 
Spain, the country from which almost the entire 
imports of raisins were derived. Tlae industry did 
not at once assume commercial proportions, but it is 
notable that so early as 1SS5, the effects of iocreased 
production in California, began to be shown in % 
decrease of imports. In the fiscal year I800-86, im- 
ports declined to 40,000,000 pounds from 54,000,000 
only two years before. Production in California, on, 
the other hand, began in that year to assume com- 
mercial proportions tor the first time, and amounted 
to 9,000,000 pounds, against 2,000.000 in the previous 
year. The impetus given to the industry at this time 
was never rei.-ixed ; production increased by leaps and 
bounds until ia i&95 the high record mark of 103,000,000 
pounds was reached. Since 1895, the raism proano- 
tion of California has declined, but this it is claimed 
has been due to adverse climatic conditions, and not 
to any decrease of interest in the industry. Exports 
of California raisins first became of sufiicient impor- 
tance to be separately stated in the official reports of 
United States Treasury Dipartment in the fiscal year 
ended June 30, 1898. It is estimated by some autho- 
rities, that as many as 64.000 acres are devoted to the 
cultiTation of the raisin grape, in the raisin-producing 
district of California. The city of Fresno, which ia 
known throughout California as the •' Eaisin City," i« 
ft centre of a district which produces about two-thirda 
of the entire output ot the State. Eight months of 
sunshine and an abundance of water for irrigation 
make this one of the ideal grape-producing distrioH 
of the milA,— Journal of th /Society of 
