The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1894-01-13
THE TWO FIBER PLANTS.
CULTIVATION HERE OF sANsEyIERIA
AND SISAL.
Exhaustive Treatment Of the subject
How to Get the Plants and Grow
Them-PrOfits.
IBY COMMISSIONER j, MARsDEN.


The coffee grower will find in the
cultivation of this valuable fiber
profitable employment, after the pick
| ing season is over, of all the labor not
needed in the cultivation of the coffee,
and therefore will be able to keep full
| force of labor sufficient to pick the
coffee crop as soon as it is ripe, and
/ without loss. Coffee needs to be
picked as soon AS it is ripe or it soon
falls and is lost and unless the coffee
growers can keep a sufficient number of
hands employed all the year round
much difficulty will be experienced in
procuring the extra labor needed in
picking time. This trouble will become
more and more pressing as new coffee
plantations come into bearing and
would earnestly invite the attention of
/ all the present and intending coffee
growers to the merits OF the sanseViera.
/ plant as q means OF obviating what will
surely prove a serious check to the pros
peritv oi the coffee industry. In the
/ heydav OF the coffee industry in CeylOn
| this difficulty did not exist, as large
numbers of Coolies from India went
over to Cevlon ior the picking season,
at the end Of which they returned home
with their earnings. We have no such
supply of labOrers to draw upon for our
/ temporary needs. The force needed for
picking the crop must be kept all the
| year round and unless they can he profit
ably employed the profits OF coffee
growing will be greatly diminished and
much confidence lost in an industry for
which the soil and climate of Hawaii
is So eminently adapted.
The agave sisalana is plant OF much
promise to Hawaii. 1t will grow and
/ give profitable returns ON such lands a.
are utterly worthless for any other pur-
pose. Compared with most other crops,
/ the amount OF cultivation required for
/ sisal hemp is practically nothing. No
blowing or breaking up OF the soil is
necessary. To set out in straight rows,
$50 plants to the acre, in holes Just big
enough to keep the plant upright, Is all
/ the work required Tor planting the crop.
After cultivation consists in removing
the suckers as they form (Which can be
used for extending the planting) and in
keeping down any weeds which may
threaten to smother the young plants.
On much OF the land in these Islands
suitable for the growing OF this plant,
weeds do not make their appearance ex-
cept during the winter rains, and they
soon dry up and die when the dry
weather sets in. The sisal plant grows
and hOurishes almost without moisture.
In an article published in the keW But
letia we are informed that the soil OF
Yucatan best suited 10 this culture is OF
"a gravellv, stony and, in some places,
Ia .,la hrix-
best and Welding the greatest amount of
fiber ia comparatively arid districts only
a few feet above the level OF the sea. "
On the other hand, moist or rich land is
considered unsuted because OF the lesser
Weld OF the fiber which would result, A
correspondent OF the Fiber Investigation
Department at Washington writes with
positiveness upon this plant as follows:
The fact OF the plant itself flourish
ing better may be attributed to com
binatiOn OF conditions existing both in
| the soil and surrounding atmosphere,
principal among which | notice the
! presence OF salt-makiug, its retention OF
moisture, and OF lime phosphates result
ant from decaying shells. Land border
ing on the Atlantic coast, which is evil
IDENTIFY alluyion to paratively
recent date, is generally considered too
poor in the constituents necessary to
plant life to make it worth while to at
Tempt any cultivation upon it, and
whilst this may be true as regards a lack
Of vegetable matter yet the shelly, saline
lands will be found TO suit such plants
as the yuccas, agaveS, etc, both chem
ically and physically better than the
rich, black hummock lands.
From the account of the authority
Just quoted it is plain that by far the
greater portion OF land ON the Islands
now considered worthless is well adapted
to the cultivation OF the sisal hemp. II is
well within bounds to say that POO, 900
acres of land on these Islands that now
produces but little revenue, either to
the owners or 10 the Government, can,
by means Of the sisal plant, be made u
source OF wealth to the country and fur
nish employment to thousands OF labOrers
and artizans. In order To render FEAST
bic the establishment OF such an i'm
portant industry, it will he necessary TO
bring to this country, as soon as possible,
AS many OF the young plants of
the .agaye sisalana as ean be pro-
cured. The sources Of supply are
very limited, aud we are likely at any
time to be entirely cut off The follow,
ing extract from Report No, on sisal
hemp culture, issued by the United
States Department OF Agriculture, will
show how at any time il may be ex-