384 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. [1 Noy., 1897. 
The Furcrea, as it is often written, is found growing in the Bundaberg and 
Maryborough and Townsville districts, and probably all over the North, 
considerable diversity of opinion existing among residents of the above 
districts as to whether it was a true sisal hemp plant or not. The Mourcroya, 
although not so valuable a fibre plant as the Agave sisalana, is nevertheless of 
considerable commercial value, and in districts where the plant is evidently 
acclimatised it were folly not to utilise it. 
Of the seven varieties of Agave plant cultivated in Yucatan the best is 
that known as “ Sacqui,” meaning ‘ white’ in the Indian dialect, owing to the 
light-green colour of its leaves. This variety possesses all the best attributes 
of a fibre plant—abundanee, flexibility, whiteness, strength, length, and weight. 
The leaves of all the varieties vary in size from 5 feet to 7} feet in length by 
4 inches to 7 inches in width. 
In Yucatan the plant has seemingly many names—for instance, the Spanish 
name is ‘‘ Henequin,” and the Indian “Sacqui.”’ Doctor Perrino, who 
introduced it into Florida, gave it the name of Agave sisalana ; in Cuba it is 
known as the “maguey”; but M. Jules Lachaume, of the Acclimatisation 
Gardens, Havana, who in 1876, at the Centennial Exposition, Philadelphia, 
exhibited fifty-seven specimens of Agaves, says it is known to botanists as 
the Americana mexicana. The “ Pita’’ of the Bahamas is not the above plant. 
Sorn. 
The plant thrives best on a rocky, gravelly soil, on which it produces the 
finest fibre. Any poor, impoverished-looking, high and dry land, or any bare 
hillside will answer equally as well. The more exposed the better, shade being 
prejudicial even in the earliest stages of growth. The plant will not thrive at 
all on wet land. On very rich or good agricultural land it will grow 
luxuriantly, but the fibre will be very inferior in quality. This is one of the 
conundrums in Nature difficult to solve, but a fact nevertheless. Any hungry- 
looking soil, in fact, will answer for its profitable cultivation. 
PLANTING. 
The, Agave is easily propagated from seed and suckers. Where suckers 
are readily procurable they are much to be preferred to seed, the returns being 
obtained quicker by a year or two. Plants raised from seed do not yield till 
four to five years old, whereas from suckers or young plants a yield is obtained 
in the third year. Of course, in the absence of a supply of suckers or young 
plants seed must be obtained and planted in a nursery, the plants being put out 
from the nursery when from 18 inches to 24 inches in height. These are so hardy 
that they will bear transplanting at any age, and may be planted out in any 
weather ; but they are usually put out during wet weather, more as a matter of 
* convenience than for any other reason. In removing young plants from the 
nursery and before planting them out, the roots are cut off right up to the 
stem, and any dry leaves pulled off, exactly in the same manner as pineapple 
slips and suckers. The land requires no preparation whatever prior to planting 
out; no ploughing, cross-ploughing, or harrowing is needed. The Agave should 
be planted in rows 11 feet apart, and 6 to 7 feet apart in the rows; this will 
give 650 plants to the acre. The land should be laid out in blocks with roads 
between. Regularity in laying them out is essential for harvesting. Holes 
are dug at the distances marked, and the young plants stuck in, care being 
taken to have them upright and straight in the rows, for if not, and they grow _ 
up at angles in all directions, there will be no getting between them to gather 
the leaves of those ripe first. 
CULTIVATION. 
After the plants are once put in, with the exception of a weeding or two 
during the earlier stages of growth, they require no attention. A writer in 
1858 said, “The simplicity of the cultivation may be conceived from the state- 
ment that there is not a hoe, nor spade, nor harrow, nor plough employed in ~ 
