596
through the machine. The fire is said to be then delivered clean
from end to end. A six-horse power machine of this class is credited
with being able to deal with 50,000 Sisal leaves per day.
I confess that I consider that this statement should be
received with a great deal of caution.
The number of leaves cut from Agave plants of four years
and I assume that the so-called Henequen comes within the
same category may be put at 40 leaves with an average weight of
1-1/3 pound per leaf, and a yield of 4 per cent of cleaned fibre.
With an average of 600 plants to the acre and 40 leaves weighing
20 pounds to each plant, the yield would be 24,000 leaves, weighing
12,000 pounds and yielding 480 pounds of cleaned fibre. If this
machine can deal with double the above quantity, which
has been carefully estimated and checked by Mr. Fee, one of
the Magistrates in the Bahamas, it can turn out more than one ton
of fibre per diem. In this case the owners can well cry out HURRAH!!
HURRAH!! and give Mr. Kennedy's "Bureau Machine" the "go by".
But what is our own experience in Trinidad and the still
larger experience in the Bahamas where the fibre industry is now
firmly established and the greatest possible expectations of its
success are entertained? Our experience with machines here can
only be regarded as most unsatisfactory, and their results
exaggerated.
In the last AGRICULTURAL RECORD is to be found the
report of a Committee appointed by me to test Deato's patent
fibre machine. The results may be shortly summarized as follows:-
Page 600
Page 601