The sisal industry in British East Africa. Gathering and transporting the sisal leaves, extracting the fibre by machine, washing, drying, and baling up the finished product.

Waving sisal grass on a large plantation. Africans cut 25 leaves per minute and tie in bundles of fifty. These are taken to a small railway track and loaded trucks are pushed by hand to the factory. Leaves are fed into fibre-extracting machine that separates fibre from pulp. Fibre is well washed in rinsing pits by boys working 2 hour shifts. In the drying yards the fibre is spread out by small boys called Totos. After several hours, the brushing machine smoothes out tangles and gives fibre a gloss. Loose fibre is pressed into compact bales by a hydraulic press; bound with canvas and wire they are ready for shipment to Europe (639ft).