, 1908-05-23

sted yesterday morning.
We are sorry to lea:n that DR.. Petersen
met with II serious accident while IN his
phaeton at the door OF the Hospital in Fred
eriksted on Monday. 1t appears that the
Doctor leant forward to take ~ the reing,
which were sliding down, when the horse
gave him several severe kicks on the chest
and in the neck. We understand that he
was unconscious for some time after tie
accident.
We recently had the pleasure Of seeing at
work q machine put up at L)ngford for the
purpose of extracting the fibtes from the
Slsal hemp pant, known botanically rs
A9ace ri9ida, a near relative of the common
American aloe or c~aritta, Agtro Il nerica II.
With this macIiue III wor, goes verg
quickly a leaf IS pu5 ia al the front, is seiz-
ed by the machine, which with Q loud and
smart tearing sound strips the green coating
first off one half of the leafs length then off
the other, and lastly sends the bundle Of
long and strong fbres, wh'ch is left, out into
the yard hanging across a rope. Ia the yard
the bundles are taken from the rope as it
moves and thrown over light wooden horses
erected to receive them, and are dried
out there IL the sun. Afterwards, as we
understood, they are taken iato another part
Of the building, where they pass through
some finishing process before being baleu
for export. The whole work at the factory
is in the nature of IN experiment, ana presu.
mnbly there will not be much fibre to ship
at first but if the results tun out sltisfuc-
tory the supply Of fibre VIII no doubt be
increased. Most of the Plantation Compa-
pany' s lands are of excellent quality, but we
doubt not that in SO large IN area there are
some parts that are poor enough to produce
plenty Of fibre versus green pulp. That the
position Of the industry would ever rank
with hat OF our leading product, the cane
and latterly the cotton, IS Of course not to be
expected but it is q pleasure to see such
great efforts made TO introduce an additional
means of making our so prof able to own
ers and labonrers alike, and we are sure that
all our readers will wish these efforts a
completely succ essful issue.
The month of May has but a short time left
to redeem it's reputation as a rainy month.
That the reputation has not arisen from
superficial observations merely, like some OF
the beliefs about the moons connection With
the weather, for instance, IS plain enough
from the figures we recently quoted in this
paper. 1t is also we'll known in the other
West Indian islands that rain may be looked
for with a far amount of certainty this
month in Jamaica, for example, the times
when rain falls during the month are known
as the Nag Seasons, and il they do not come
the failure is regarded as o singular, as
well as unfortunate, departure from rule.
Here, at present, the sky is clear day
after day and the sun shines hot on the
water, and must be continually drawing up
vast quantities into the air, but it doesn't
come down again. We must suppose that it
drifts away to fall somewhere else, and more
dry air takes it's place to be saturated and
drift away in its turn aud there is nothing
to be done but to wait till there is, as III
the sugar market, an over supply, and then
our turn will come.