Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 38.djvu/633

Rh and as the recent "sisal boom" in the Bahamas will increase the demand, there is little doubt but that here, as in so many other cases, necessity will prove the mother of invention. When the fiber can be cheaply produced in large quantities, there is little doubt but that increased uses will be found for it, and that the demand will equal the supply.



In 1887 Yucatan exported crude fiber valued at over $3,000,000, besides $37,862 in rope and $43,891 in hammocks. About eighty-four per cent of the crude fiber and fifty per cent of the hammocks came to the United States; most of the remaining fiber went to England, Germany, and France, while Spain took the rest of the hammocks and all the rope. In 1889 the import of sisal hemp into the United States was between $6,000,000 and $7,000,000, about 50,000 tons, on which a duty of fifteen dollars a ton was paid.

Now it may be asked, "Why can not the United States produce sisal too? Is no portion of our vast territory suitable for this crop?" As we shall see, some one did ask that question over fifty years ago. It is not generally known that in 1827 the Treasury Department issued a circular to some of the American consuls, requesting them to collect and preserve seeds and specimens of