220 x 165 mm. View of sisal growing beside a road. The caption continues: 'Full grown sisal after the first cutting has been taken. The pole is the ultimate function of the plant and after it has grown no more leaves are available.'

A further explanatory note reads: 'Sisal growing in Africa. Sisal fibre from Kenya, used before the war for binder twine, shop twine and hessian and gunny baga has become an important war priority since the Japanese occupation of the Philippines. The consequent shortage of Manila hemp has resulted in sisal being very extensively used for rope manufacture. Two Kenya pioneers, Randall Swift and Ernest Rutherford planted the first sisal in the colony at the beginning of the twentieth century having brought plants from German East Africa. The sisal plant, originally a native of Mexico flourished in East Africa and by 1939 these territories were producing about half the worlds supply. Although the plant grew well the sisal industry didn't flourish, it is an expensive crop to deal with and from 1930 to 1941 there was a bad slump in the trade. Then the Japanese seized Manila and sisal in Kenya became a number one priority of industry when everything possible was done to help the sisal planter in his war effort. These pictures were taken on one of the largest sisal estates in Kenya.' Here Wilson may be mistaken here, as nearly all of the other photographs accompanying this one are captioned 'sisal in Tanganyika' (i.e. Tanzania), as is the envelope they were originally housed in.