Evening bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1895-1912, 1903-07-17

Hawaii Agricultural Experiment sta
ton by Frank l.. Confer. under the di-
iectlon of Jared Smith, Director of the
U. S. Experiment Station, gives yalu-
able and interesting data on the cult
walton of sisal in the Hawaiian Islands.
The pamphlet is divided into chap
tiers treating the nature of the plant
and the mode OF cultivating and har-
vesting II. The chapter on the yield
o: fiber reads as follows:
At Time Of Polling.
A sisal plant at the time OF polling
has about 235 leaves, of which 1856 are
mature leaves, or nearly so, and 90
leaves which will mature within one
year. provided the pole is cut of Just
at the base of the uppermost leaves.
First Cutting.
The first cutting OF leaves takes place
to 3Ia years after planting, and aver
ages % mature leaves per plant. The
leaves of the first cutting are smaller.
and give lower percentage OF mar
ketable fiber than those of subsequent
cuttings. The time required to ma
ture the other 2l0 leaves, together
with ,beir si1e weiybt and nercentaye
NJ 1bor oro reguIated by tho condi-
tions under which the plant grows.
s,,h..,n.,, c,,,,n,.
subsooue,t outt,ngs NAV ho u,do n,
intervals of 6 months. but should be
made whom conditions arc favorable
A ve, SEASON tho scarcity n, labor ar
the low nrice M sber are sufficient,
causes for nostnoninp tho harvest for
N yeor or more The nIap,s may be
injured nv emitting too many leaves
The soft fber NJ Immature leavsa 10
wasted Inv the machine
Hawaiian p,oduot.
A considerable number of mature
leaves from plants grown at the Ha-
wall Experiment Station. and also from
plants grown at sisal Oahu. have been
examined the finer extracted Inv hand
and all min removed from the fiber
These leaves were weighed separately
and the dry fiber from each was care
fully weighed The percentaees of finer
AS given below are much less than the
working averages obtained on the sisaI
plantations nv the use of fibor-extract-
ing machines. The reason for this
difference is that when the fiber was
extracted in the laboratory. each fiber
in the leaf was carefully cleaned of all
adherlng pulp. and was then washed
and dried. On the contrary, where the
fiber is extracted by machinery. enough
pulp and soluble impurities remain at
tached to the fiber to account for the
increased percentage obtained. The
percentages given are hence the actual
fiber content OF the leaf-not the per
cent which is marketable. The inyesti.
cations and experiments made to as
certain the yield per acre give the fol-
lowing figures as the lowest obtainable
under conditions referred to, and with
out the influence OF salt in the soil or
air, which would doubtless increase
the percentage OF fiber. It is believed
that this method of calculation is the
safest to ascertain the yield OF new
plantations:
In the case Of paintings 7 by 7 feet
apart (giving $3.50 plants to the acre.
on the poorest soil, without cultivation,
the first cutting OF l2h pounds OF
green leaves should give Az ounces
OF fiber, or 2.37 per cent. The remain
| ing 2l0 leaves would probably mature
within 81 years from the date of the
first cutting. and would give 100
pounds of green weight, yielding Az
pounds OF fiber, or 3 per cent. making