2 7 ° 
Can a maunfacturer buy from natives at this price, if they have 
to bring it in small quantities for miles and miles? No. Can a 
manufacturer obtain it from his own plantations, if situated all 
around his factory? Yes, and cheaper. 
Therefore, v hat can be done with the best machine, if you have 
not sufficient and cheap raw material ? 
1'hat machines for working fibres exist is, I believe, known to 
everybody. 
The question has often been put by European fibre- merchants, why 
does not Singapore export Pineapple fibre as it appears that there 
is plenty of raw material, and it is not necessary to cultivate more ? 
The reasons are very simple. 
Pineapples (if cultivated in the sun for fruits) give a very short 
and light fibre of only about 2 per cent, return ; therefore, to make 
one ton fibre (dry) it is necessary to work about 8oo piculs of leaves. 
The price for one picul of leaves, asked by natives, delivered in 
Singapore, is $o.6o and higher, or the cost of the raw material 
nearlv $480 per ton of dry fibre, more than the value of the fibre 
on the London market. What are the reasons for this exorbitant 
price of $0.60 asked by natives ? The following : — 
1. The very expensive bullock cart hire from the centre of cul- 
tivation at the 9th Mile in Thompson and Bukit Timah Roads and 
Pasir Panjang. 
2. The impossibility of explaining to the Chinese cultivators 
that it does not spoil the plant or diminish the return in fruits to cut 
some leaves -from each -plant. 
3. The necessity of cutting carefully only a few leaves from each 
plant, where cooly wages are expensive. 
But on the other hand, to erect a factory, (to obviate the first rea- 
son) near the plantations is impossible, because there exists no clean 
fresh water near them nor indeed enough water to drive the engines 
nor enough cheap firewood for this purpose. . 
Therefore, to make Pineapple or any other fibre will only be pos- 
sible if it is cultivated around a factory. Pineapple and some other 
fibres require shade, where the leaves of Pineapples for instance 
obtain a length of 6 to 12 feet and contain up to 3 per cent, fibre 
and so cultivation will cost, delivered at the factory, only $0.10 to 
$0.15 per picul or as raw material $80 to $120 per ton. 
The points to be taken into consideration to start a fibre venture 
which will work and pay are the following : — 
1. — Sufficient capital. 
2. Patience, courage and a clear knowledge of the cultivation 
and manufacture. 
3. — Well situated and good land from the point of view of cul- 
tivation of plants as for the later erection of a factory 
and the transport of leaves from field to factory. 
4. — Sufficient and cheap labour. 
