1 Sepr., 1898. ] QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. 225 
EXPORT OF MANILLA HEMP FROM THE PHILIPPINES. 
Year. , *Piculs. 
1850 a wt by mm mm Th 124,367 
1872 ats iM tr) er fs se 613,240 
187: ne ar ae a eH ot 628,066 
1874 Bas a ae s ASD 616,122 
1875 im =f ay rr a0 yt 519,392 
From Cebu the exports were— - 
1874 abo on wat rest BD ne 234,361 
1875 ae by ave 154,922 
Of the 250,000 bales received at Manilla in 1864, about 129,000 were 
shipped to the United States and California; 114,000 to Great Britain ; and 
the remainder to the British possessions and settlements in Australia, 
India, China, ete. 
This article has been compiled not with any very sanguine idea that a 
large fibre industry may be promoted in North Queensland, because labour 
difficulties, if no others, stand in the way, but these may be overcome in the 
course of time. In New Zealand Phormium tenax will doubtless receive more 
attention than it has for some time past, and it is to be hoped the fibre industry 
there will. expand further. There are, and have been, far less promising 
industries than fibre growing and separating established in Queensland ; but 
very cautious preliminaries inust be taken, and no thought of great fortunes 
can be fora moment entertained. Careful plodding experience is necessary in 
this as well as: any enterprise connected with the cultivation of the soil, 
particularly in this colony where the unknown factors are yet to be determined. 
It is true the Government of our colony is ready to assist, in almost every 
way, efforts to develop unknown resources. Ina future article other introduced 
fibre plants will be discussed, together with some of our own indigenous fibre- 
producing plants. 
AGAVE RIGIDA, var. SISALANA. 
Perhaps before commencing on the above subject it would be as well to 
quote a paragraph which appeared in Al/ About Colonial Produce, which was 
published in that guide in 1894 as an extract from the London and China 
Telegraph :—* We learn that the first Manilla hemp ever grown in or imported 
from British North Borneo has just been received and sold in the London 
market. It. consisted of only a small trial parcel, and realised prices from £22 
to £24 per ton. The little trial shipment consisted of qualities ranging in colour 
from common brown worth about £14 per ton to fine white valued at £28 per ton, 
the thread of all qualities running even. ‘The hemp, we believe, was made 
trom stems only eighteen months old, and it is expected that the weight 
obtained in this instance per stem will increase as the size of the stem increases 
with age.” 
Agave rigida, var. sisalana, does not seem to have been well known in 
England a very few years ago, even as a hothouse plant. Neither Nicholson 
in his “Encyclopedia of Horticulture,’ Johnson in his “ Gardeners’ Dic- 
tionary,” or Simmons in his “Tropical Agriculture,” mention this Sisal.’ 
Baron von Mueller, however, in his “ Select Plants, 1888,’’ has the following 
in its regard :—‘ Agave rigida, Miller: Yucatan. The Chelem, Henequen, 
and Sacci of the Mexicans, furnishing the Sisal hemp. Drs. Perrine, Scott, 
and Englemann indicate several varieties of this stately plant, the fibre being 
therefore also variable both in quantity and quality; the leaves of the Sacci or 
Sacqui giving the largest return. The yield of fibre begins in four or five 
years, and lasts for half-a-century or more, the plant being prevented from 
flowering by cutting away its flower-stalk when very young. The fibre is 
straight, very glossy, and strong, particularly well adapted for ropes, as 
*A Chinese weight, equal to 1334 lb. 
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