643 
March 2 , 1891 .] THE TROPICAL AQRIOULTURfST 
and Tradesmen in the contriving, making and 
concluding Bargains and Contracts to be made 
between them concerning their Wares and Mer- 
chandizes to be brought and sold and contracted 
lor within the City of London." These persons, 
the Act goes on recite, “ have had and born the 
name of Brokers, and been known, called, and 
taken for Brokers, and dealing in Brokerage or 
Brokery," and they “ never of any ancient Time 
used to buy and sell Garments, Household Stuff," 
and suchlike. But, the Act goes on to deduce that, 
“certain Freemen of the City had forsaken their 
manual occupations, aud did daily set up a Trade 
of buying and selling and taking to Pawn all kind 
of Worn Apparel, finding that the same is a more 
idle and easier kind of Trade of Living.” These 
brokers of the baser sort are described as " Friperers 
and no Brokers,” and elsewhere as “ upstart 
Brokers,” and they have been found to encourage 
“bad and lewd persons to rob ard steal.” The 
Act does not, as the rtader would anticipate from 
its preamble, make any provision for the protection 
of the title. Its object is simply to impose a 
fine on those objectionable furniture and apparel 
brokers who should receive stolen goods. 
That class of dealers had been called brokers 
for “divers hundreds of years ” before King James's 
day, aud the name and occupation still survive 
among us. In a sense, it will be seen, all middle- 
men are brokers. Those whose original business 
was “ the contriving, making, and concluding Bar- 
gains and Contracts between Merchant English and 
Strangers,” still tend to become merchants them- 
selves, as they did two or three centuries ago, but 
the middleman or broker would seem to be as 
necessary now as he was then in various depart- 
ments of our commerce, notwithstanding the 
alleged disposition of the age to crush him out. 
— Chemist and Druggist. 
SISAL HEMP. 
The following detailed particulars of planting, 
working, general management and final out turn 
of Sisal Hemp (of commerce) were written in 1886 
by Mr. Daniel J. Stoddart, a well known resident 
of Jamaica ; — 
Inthoduction. 
In putting the present work of Sisal Hemp plant' 
ing into print, and iutroduciug it (o the public of 
Jamaica, I do so with the object < f promoting, if 
possible, the interests of this Island by advising 
the cultivation of the plant, consi lering it nothing 
less than an obligation of mine. I shall endeavour 
to put before my readers the planting, working, and 
everything else connected with Sisal Hemp in as few 
words possible, and yet in as explicit a manner as to 
bo fully comprehensible. When I fi st landed on the 
shores of that great hemp country Yucatan, one of 
the States of Mexico, and saw the immense tra 'e in 
hemp, by which a large amount of money is put in 
circulation, and the fibre finding such an immediate 
sale all over Europe, but principally in the United 
Stales of America, tho demand being so great, it 
attracted very much my notice and consequently 
claimed my attention which I immodiately gave. 
The importance of this fibre may be judged when 
it is known as the sole production of Yucatan and 
the only article of export. 
Too much cinuot bo said of this valuable plant 
which is the great and only source of wealth on the 
Peninsula where there ore to be seen plantations of 
pure hemp, comprising oich an area of about two 
thousand acres. The increasing demand Icr it all over 
the world is made innuifest by tho mnnhor of new 
plantations being opened out there. Theie is no doubt 
that there are soils in Jamaica highily adapted to the 
cultivation of Sisal Hemp, aud that tho climate is 
identical with the tropical nature of Yucatao. What 
makes me more sanguine about its success here is 
that some time ago I brought out a few of the very 
young plants, distributed them to friends who planted 
them, aud they are to be seen now growing beauti- 
fully and sending out suckers. 
My practical experience in Yucatan and day and 
night work ia connection with this hemp, having been 
in the working and management of it myself, enable 
me to write fully on the matter. This small pamphlet 
is specially dedicated to Jamaica, with the hope that 
those into whose hands it may fall will lose no time 
in taking up the matter and starting the cultivation. 
As fur as its profit is concerned, putting the expenses 
at the extreme and the fibre at the lowest price in 
New Yi rk, of 4j cents a pound. Sisal Hemp gives a 
return of about 75 per cent. 
In a part of this book will he found a complete 
statement of the cost of working, out-turn and details 
of production, ko. An important point is that a 
plantation of hundreds of acres producing a good deal 
for a year’s crop requires only a small “ plant of 
machinery,” as well as buildings, &c. I speak com- 
paratively. The market for this fibre i.s already well 
established ; it does not therefore need any introduc- 
ion but must meet with a ready sale, I do warmly 
and faithfully recommend the planting of this hemp 
as a safe aud sure investment, there being nothing 
that can properly he cilled risJc in its culture. 
S veral times I have advocated in the papers the 
cultivation of Sisal Hemp, but space prevented me 
giving a minute description of it. To remedy this 
and so as to have the public impressed with the value 
of it I have selected this medium, wherein is to be 
seen all the details, which I trust will prove of some 
iutirest to my readers, who I have no doubt will agree 
with me in saying that the establishment of planta- 
tions of this sort in our Island will be a fair stride 
iu her agriculture. 
CllAPTEB I. 
Desciuftion of the Plant. 
The Sisal Hemp plant of Yucatan, Agave Itxli 
Henequen, as it is called there, would in its first 
appearance resemble our “ Keratto,” but upon close 
observation will be found widely different, being of 
a distinct style of growth ; the leaves not growing out 
so near each other and of a light green, exc -edingly 
thick. For this reason they give so much fibre which 
for strength exceeds all others. The leaves of the 
plant, which grow with prtckles or thorns on the 
edge.”, the thickness of which is greatest at the ends, 
where they are joined to the tree an 1 tapers off 
towards the edges aud other ends which have hard 
and sharp points, are slightly gutter formed; they 
grow first upright, shutting up into one another, then 
gradually spread open, and finslly bend down around 
the tree. 
The Lard nature of this plant, which is almost in- 
credible, proves itself beyond a doubt, insomuch that 
if rooted up it will remain alive for weeks without 
being replanted. 
There is positively no failure in it as with or with- 
out rain, good or bad weather, it giows and flourishes 
and never dies. It is a “ semper virent ” in every 
sense of the vvo:d, and in my estimation can have no 
e<iual iu its life-lasting quality. ai«!i.KS”st 
For a proof of this I have known during my stay 
in Yucatan, when it only raine 1 one month in the 
year, just a few showers, and the remaining eleven 
months pure dry weather, that the cattle died of star- 
vation; yet, during all that time the plant remained 
perfectly intact, not the slightest failure — not the least 
affected by the drought, retaining its greenness, giving 
its return of everyday cutting and working, and os a 
fact producing more fibre, throwing out less bagasse, 
aud all this iu a couutry devoid of rivers and streams 
Neither ploughing nor manuring of land is required 
foi’ tho cultivation of this hemp plant : no animal of 
any kind eats it. 
