Abaco fiber constitutes about three-fourths of the total exports of the Philippines. The principal markets are the United States and Great Britain. The importations into the United States during the past ten years are shown in the following table: Sisal or henequen. (Figs. 399, 400 ; also Fig. 22.) The fiber known in our markets as sisal is ob tained from the leaves of two closely related plants, henequen, Agave rigida, var. clongata, Baker, and sisal, Agave rigida, var. Sisalana, Engelm. These plants belong to the Amaryllidame or Amaryllis family, and are somewhat similar in appearance to the century plant. They are both native in Yucatan and there, as elsewhere in Spanish America, both are called henequen. The varieties are distinguished in Yucatan by the Maya names, " sacci" for var.
and "yaxci" for car. SisaIona. The variety cultivated only in Spanish America, is known by the growers as "henequen," while the variety Sisalana, cultivated mostly in English speaking countries, is called by the growers sisal." Both plants are perennial. They have rosettes of fifty to seventy-five rigid, nearly straight, erect or spreading leaves, three to five feet long, three to five inches wide, and about one-fourth inch thick above the base, terminating in a sharp reddish brown spine about one inch long. At maturity, eight to twenty-five years, the plant sends up a flower-stalk ten to twenty feet high, bearing dense clusters of erect flowers at the ends of horizontal candelabra-like branches. The flowers are followed by bulbiLs, or sometimes by seed-pods in elongate, 1,000 to 4,000 bulbils ("mast plants") being borne on a single "pole." After flowering, the plant dies. Suckers are sent up from the roots after the first year until the plant dies. Sisal is a hard fiber three to five feet long, rather coarse and stiff, light yel low or nearly white, nearly always lighter-colored than abaci.
The variety elongate, henequen or sacci, develops an elongated trunk two to six feet high, and its leaves, two to two and one-half inches thick at the base, always have marginal spines, while the variety Sisalana, sisal or yaxci, has no distinct trunk ; its leaves are usually without marginal spines and rarely more than one inch thick at the base. It produces a stronger, softer, whiter fiber, but in less quantity than the other variety.
In eastern Yucatan the variety Sisalane is culti vated to a small extent for fiber for domestic pur poses, for hammocks, bags and the like, hut the fiber for export is secured from the variety don gates, cultivated most extensively in the region about Merida. This variety is also cultivated in
Cuba, and to some extent in East Africa. The va riety Sisalana is cultivated in the Bahamas, Turks and Caicos islands, Santo Domingo, Hawaii, Central America, East Africa and India. The production of Yucatan exceeds the combined production from all the other localities.
Sisal requires a continuous warm and rather dry climate. The lowest recorded temperature in the sisal-growing region of Yucatan is and the annual rainfall twenty-nine to thirty-nine inches. It endures }fight frosts in Tamaulipas.
In Yucatan, and also in the Bahamas, the principal regions of sisal cultivation, the plants are grown almost exclusively over partly disin tegrated porous lime rock, largely of coral or shell origin. Sisal will not grow well in light, sandy soil, nor where water stands about its roots. In most places it is grown at altitudes not more than 100 feet above sea-level.
Land is prepared by cutting and burning the brush, and, unless too stony, it is plowed. Lines about nine feet apart are marked, and the plants are set about five feet apart in the rows. Suck ers taken from old plantations are used for pro pagation, except for starting plantations at long distances, when bulbils are sometimes used, as they are smaller and more easily transported. So far as possible, the young plants are set out at the begin ning of the rainy season, especially in regions sub ject to severe drought. After the plants are set they require no further care, except to cut the weeds and grass about twice each year. Cultiva tion should be given two or three times each year when the character of the soil permits. Vegetation must be kept down, as it chokes and retards the growth of sisal plants and furnishes material for field fires, the most serious menace to the crop.
The leaves are cut when three to five feet in length, and the outer ones are nearly horizontal. In the Bahamas the first crop is cut in the third or fourth year after the plants are set, and annual crops thereafter for six to twelve years. In Yuca tan, the first crop is not cut until the sixth or sev enth year, and after that a crop is cut every eight months for twelve to twenty-five years. The leaves are cut with a large knife and tied in bundles of twenty-five each, for transporting to the cleaning machine. Only the outer leaves are taken.