Excerpts: During the year 1917 more than 100,000,000 acres were planted in the, United Stales to the small-grain crops, wheat, oats, barley, rye, and rice. The total production of these crops amounted approximately to two and one-half billions of bushels, the greater part of which was harvested with harvesting machines. These machines not only cut the grain, but also bind it in bundles and automatically tie these bundles with binder twine. If the operation of the harvesting machines is to be continued, the necessary supply of binder twine must be available. To harvest the present annual grain crop of this country, or even a considerable part of it, with hand labor would be a physical impossibility with the amount of farm labor now available. Fifty years ago binder twine was unknown. At present 200,000,000 pounds of binder twine are required to bind one year's grain crop in the United States, while more than 100,000,000 pounds of American binder twine are used each year in the grain fields of other countries. With the steadily increasing production of grain in the United States, there will necessarily be a corresponding increase in the consumption of binder twine in this country. Henequen and sisal furnish approximately 90 per cent of the raw material now used in the manufacture of binder twine, and approximately 80 per cent of the world's supply of binder twine is made from Yucatan henequen.

[Published in the] Yearbook of the United States Department of Agriculture, 1918, pp. 357-366. [Contents:] Food Supply of the United States – The Grain Industry – The Place of Binder Twine – Binder-Twine Fiber – Geographical Distribution of Sisal and Henequen – Climate and Soil Requirements – Production in United States Territory – The Philippine Islands – The Hawaiian Islands – Porto Rico – Florida.