6 
substances which it contains.* The broken-up stalks, after being dried, arc likewise 
readily available for* fuel, and the fire boxes of the boilers to the engines supplied by us 
are specially adapted for.this purpose. 
THE OUT-TURN OF CLEANED FIBRE.—Each Machine requires two men to 
feed it, one on each side of the feed table, so that while one is changing, the leaves and 
stalks end for end, the other is cleaning his part, and rice versa. In this way the Machine 
is fully occupied, and there is no waste of time or water. Although the operation is'siTnple 
and easily learned, experience in working the Machine has largely to do with the amount 
of clean Fibre produced. With practice, the same hands can often turn out more than 
three times as much as they could at first, and of course in all cases the out-turn will also 
depend on the diligence as well as the quickness of the individual workman. The out-turn 
likewise depends to a very great extent on the proportion of Fibre existing in the leaves or 
stalks of the plants operated on, In a recent experiment carried out at Calicut, in ludia. 
• with Plantain, cut down, as is the custom after the fruit has been gathered, the actual 
quantity operated on amounted to 67 tons, and it w r as cleaned by the Machine, fed by two 
men, at the rate of five tons per day of ten hours, but owing to the watery nature of the 
material, the actual yield of Fibre when dried ready for baling only came to 981b. per 
day (or about seven-eighths per cent.), whereas in another case, about the same period, in 
South Africa, in which Agave leaves were used, the material was likewise operated on at 
the rate of five tons per day, but as the proportion of Fibre existing in it was four per cent., 
the out-turn would be more than four fold that from the Plantain in the instance above 
re ferred to. __ 
’ It is doubtful if the .water for preparing the Fibre of Agave plants could be used for irrigation on 
account of the acrid nature of their juices, and it would appear that in some cases even the refuse stalks from 
certain other Fibre plants cannot be used for manure. In India, the straw of the Flax plant, grown in such 
enormous quantities tor its seed, is not made into manure. The Rvots consider it deleterious it employed in 
this way, and they bum it and use the ashes instead. 
* 
t 
