SISAL HEMP.
The plants that produce the fibre known to commerce as "sisal" are agaves, near relatives of the century plant, or aloe. The leaves are mar ginned with prickles, and grow out of the centre of the short stalk. After the plant is three years old the outer leaves are cut off and their fibres separated by a machine called a "raspador." For years a plant will go on yielding ten to fifteen leaves each season. The throwing up of the
flower stem ends the leaf harvest, for the plant dies when it completes its work.
The "henequen," the sisal of Yucatan, the West Indies, Mexico, and Hawaii, is the most im portant variety grown. It has been established in India and in East Africa, where fibre of the highest quality has been produced. For cordage, sisal is second only to Manila hemp.