1 Noy., 1897.] QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. 387 
seems to be best suited for the growth of the aloe plant; a damp or water- 
logged soil is death to it. No manure is required, as the plant grows on the 
moet stony ground, where apparently there is insufficient soil to support 
its life. 
The Agaves thrive under great variations of temperature. While 
luxuriating on the plains under warm tropical influences, the plant seems 
equally at home on the hills under widely different climatic conditions. This 
strikes the Indian traveller forcibly when, after hurrying across the tropical 
plains of Madras, where the Agave is extensively used as a hedge-plant, he 
finds on the hills, amid a temperate vegetation, equally luxuriant hedgerows of 
Agave. 
The following extracts are taken from a report by Captain Jerome Stuart 
on the fibre industry of Yucatan :— 
The soil in the “fibre-producing district’ of Yucatan is gravelly and 
stony, and varies in colour, being black, brown, and red. It has an average 
depth of 8 inches, and is underlaid by a soft limestone rock. The largest fibre 
fields in the State are to be found on this shallow stony soil; and the yield of 
fibre is greater than on the deeper soil thirty miles further inland. 
There are several species of Agave to be found in Yucatan ; butas two only 
are of chief commercial value, the report is confined to these. 
The kind of fibre plant growing in Yucatan, and known as the Sacqui or 
Henequen, is a different and distinct Agave from that of the Bahamas hemp. 
The plant is hardy, and has, when cultivated, an average life of eighteen years ; 
and propagates itself by sending out suckers from its roots. The Henequen 
requires from five to eight years’ growth to produce a marketable length (8 feet) 
of fibre. The leaf from which the fibre is extracted has a thorn at the point, 
and spines on its edges, and averages 8+ feet in length. 
The Bahamas hemp (Agave rigida, var. sisalana) differs from the Henequen, 
inasmuch as the leaves are without spines on their: edges; and the fibre is 
superior in texture. The plant matures from two to three years earlier than 
the Henequen, and has an average life of twelve years. Like the Henequen, it 
propagates itself from suckers, but is also capable of producing over 2,000 
plants from the pole that grows from the centre of the plant. 
The Henequen and Bahamas hemp are the hardiest of all the Agaves. 
Their power to withstand drought is almost incredible. Plants of the Bahama 
hemp have been known to lie on the ground for three months, exposed to the 
rays of the sun, and when planted to grow with the greatest vigour. These 
plants have never been known to be troubled with any organic disease. No 
fungus or insect can apparently damage or affect them; and in 1883, when the 
locust devastated the State of Yucatan, the cattle and birds died of starvation, 
and men were on the eve of despair, the only green living plants to be seen 
were the different species of Agaves, and they are now looked upon as the 
salvation of the State. Although not apparently subject to disease, and 
capable of resisting a drought eleven months in twelve, the plant is not 
altogether free from the effects of sudden changes of heat and cold, and is 
liable to be damaged by floods of rain immediately after a long drought if 
accompanied by a sudden fall of temperature. This happened in Yucatan in 
1888, when, after a severe drought, the rains came on suddenly, with hail and a 
heavy wind from the north-west, with a fall of temperature from 89 degrees to 
57 degrees, and within one night about 90 per cent. of the plants were 
damaged or blasted on the ends of the leaves, about an average of three 
leaves to the plant being affected, causing a loss of 8 to 5 per cent. of leaf. 
There are several kinds of machinery used for extracting the fibre on the 
different estates. Those cleaning less than 75,000 leaves per day use the 
large common machines, “ Raspador” and “ Barraclough” ; and those cleaning 
from 80,000 to 120,000 per day use the larger and more complicated machines 
—the Prieto, Villamore, Weicher, Death and Ellwood, &c. The planters, if 
using one of the large machines, keep several of the Raspadors in reserve, for 
