18 BULLETIN 930, U. S.. DEPARTMENT OE AGRICULTURE. 
Cebu, and Bohol should furnish an abundant supply of suckers and 
bulbils for future use. 
IMPROVEMENTS ON PLANTATIONS. 
The field agents of the demonstration and extension division of 
the Philippine Bureau of Agriculture have been working with the 
maguey planters for a number of years with a view to encouraging 
the use of improved methods on the plantations. It has been ex- 
tremely difficult to get satisfactory results in this work, as most of 
the producers of maguey have small plantings only and are not dis- 
posed to make any changes in the methods to which they are accus- 
tomed. With the introduction of cleaning machines and with the 
consequent increased demand for maguey and sisal leaves of good 
quality, there will be an opportunity for the employees of the Phil- 
ippine Bureau of Agriculture to continue this work under much more 
favorable conditions than those which have existed in the past. 
SUMMARY. 
Important agricultural and manufacturing industries of the 
United States are now largely dependent on supplies of imported 
raw products. Necessary action should be taken to safeguard our 
future supply of these products. 
The grain-producing industry of the United States can not be 
maintained without the use of harvesting machinery, and this ma- 
chinery can not be operated without binder twine. 
The greater portion of the binder twine used in the United States 
is manufactured from henequen and sisal fibers, and more than 90 per 
cent of the total supply of these fibers imported into the United States 
is received from Yucatan. 
This dependence of our most important agricultural industry on 
one small State of a foreign country constitutes a grave menace to 
American agriculture. 
In order to remedy this situation, it is essential that an increased 
supply of binder-twine fiber be produced within the territory of the 
United States or in countries over which the United States exercises 
political control. 
The Philippine Islands possess the requirements necessary for the 
development of a flourishing sisal industry. 
The production of binder-twine fiber in the Philippine Islands has 
been restricted in the past by reason of the antiquated methods that 
are in general use by the planters, and a number of reforms in this 
industry are urgently needed. 
For the last three years the United States Department of Agricul- 
ture has been cooperating with the Philippine Bureau of Agriculture 
