The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1915-04-13
YUCATAN FIBRE
 INDISPENsABI1E TO US
Tr.e Little Mexican Port of Progresso
 Plays . Vital Part in American Aq73cuIture.

ss8z sAt ttt
 Washington. D. C.. April 1s-when it was announced that General Car ranza planned No blockade the port | of Progreso there were probably very | few persons in this country who real l ized that this particular incident in | the Iong-drawn -cut Mexican. troubles | might cause the United States more l real loss than anything which has occurred since the downfall of Diaz Progreso is an Insignificant looking | place, the chief characteristic of which is a long pier jutting out into the open sea, for the port in reality is merely an open roadstead No large vessels can approaah this pier and their cargoes have to be shipped ana unloaded by means of lighters. If a snorther'' happens to come up while a ship is lying at anchor out side the town the captain is disposed to get out to sea as fast as pos1b1e' leaving passengers and cargo to be picked up at a more convenient time. l Altbgether it is difficult to imagine that this primitive substitute for real harbor can be of vital concern 1 to the United States. Two words, | however, explain its importance l binder twine-
 Of this binder twine, the e1aibor- ate harvesting machines. which have l been carried to their greatest per lection in this country, use approi- mately 200, 900. 900 pounds year. This year, indeed. it is expected that the quantity will be greater, for it l is likely that the grain crops will be | the largest in the history of the coun- try Approximately four-hfths of 1 the raw material needed for this enor- | nous mass of tWine comes from Pro- | greso in the form of Yucatan hene- I quen. or as it is soetimess though 1n- | correctly, called, sisaI fibre. This T fxUo l acteristics which make it especially desirable for the selfSbinding harvest ing machines. It is cheap and it is sufficiently hard to be cut clean by the knives of the knotter in the bind ing device instead of jamning as a 1 softer fibre would do.
 Previous to 1899 hemp was largely used for this purpose and even now there is a certain quantity of abaca, the so-caIled Manila hemp, imported from the Philippines to be made into binder twine The Manila product, than the henequen, and for harvesting purposes is little, if any, better. Ac- cording to the prices recently an nounced by one of the large manu- lecturers of binder twine in this country binder tvine made of Yuca- tan henequen will cost wholesalers, this year. 7I1-2 cents for 500 feet or one pound, while high-grade abaca will cost 12 1-2 cents for $50 feet or one pound. These prices. it should be said in passing, are for business already booked which provides an 1 catan should be seriously interfered
 with in the future. This difference in cost between the Manila and the
 Yucatan products has resulted, as 2 has already. been said in giving the
 Yucatan growers four-f1fths of the m a eaf
 Tn former years a certain amount
 of true sisa1 fibre was imported from
 German East Africa, British Eas
 Africa Java, Hawaii and the Baha. l mas The supply from Hawaii b though relatively small, is most prom
 istng at the present time Even un
 der normal circumstances however
 these importations have not been il
 sufficient quantities to exercise a. grea; s influence in the commercial narlxe a and the war has made them fstil @ more insignificant. Nothing at all
 for instance, is coing dn from Ger @ man East Africa A certain amour
 of fibre, suitable for binder twine i
 also grown in New Zealand but this ) again. cannot exert any apprecia.bl,
 ton.
 Flores from bear grass, Spanisl S bayonet, 1echugui11a and other plant
 of the arid southwest are being sug
 gested as substitutes for henequen bu g none of them ds suitable for binde
 twtne.
 With a. wheat crop alone that, it i
 estimated, will amount to 900.OO0.0o e bushels this year ,and with the diff d culty of obtaining harvest labor tha
 always exists to a greater or 1esse
 extent. it is obvious that fla seriou
 shortage in the supply of twine shoul
 result in. making the se1f-bindins
 harvesters practically useless the cro . could not be gathered with sufficien
 rapidtiy to avoid the spelling of
 large proportion of it. Once befort
 in 1912. such shortage was threat
 ened. for the crops proved to be muc
 more abundant than had been antici
 hated and the demand for the twin