E.D. Rutherford

The history of the Sisal industry in Tanganyika has an air of romance. In 1892 the attention of Dr. Hindorf, then working on an estate near Amani, was attracted by a Kew bulletin to the Sisal plant (Agave sisalana, Perrine), as he thought this plant might thrive in the plains stretching from the foot of the Usambaras to Tanga. After an unsuccessful attempt to obtain planting material from Yucatan he was able to arrange for the import of 1,000 bulbils from Florida. This was shipped to Hamburg, repacked, and forwarded to Tanga in 1892, and upon arrival the sixty-two surviving plants were put in a nursery at Kikogwe, near Pangani. Thus were the foundations of the present industry laid, and its development from such a small nucleus is little short of remarkable.

Later in 1906, 1,000 bulbils were imported from Mexico by Messrs. Amboni Estates Ltd. (through Kew), and in 1907 plants were introduced into Kenya from Tanganyika by the late E.D.Rutherford.