Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1888-04-28

leaves being all that man can stagger
under. is.S ksSzssS
After the hemp is thus cleaned, it is
tied into small thanks" and these are
pressed into bales, weighing per bale from
$50 to 500 pounds, then bound with ropes
of the same fiber, the special mark of the
grower or shipper placed on them, and then
they are started on their two weeks voy-
age to New York or Boston.
Manila is not treated in quite the same
way in its Philippine Island home. The
| plant is like banana tree, often growing
% feet high, with only a single tuft of
leaves growing out of the top. When
properly matured, il is cut at the root and
the leaves are pulled off down to the very
bottom of the tree. Formerly these strips
were then broken on wooden blocks, with
clubs, until the pulp was broken up; when
| II was scraped with dull knives to cleanse
| the fiber from all foreign substances. But
now improved machinery has been intro
dGced into that far-away country, and ii is
| cleaned in about the same manner rs sisal,
only more care is required as the fiber is
often 10 feet long After being dried it is
tied up in hanks, pressed into bales Of 30
pounds each, covered with grass mating,
bound tightly with rattan, and in that
! state makes its four months voyage to the
United States.
Not long ago a gentleman from Brook
Ign, n. Y, came down to this region-to
hunt hemp, so he said, but expecting 20
find something else which would throw
that fiber all in the shade as a source of
export wealth. He brought down ship
! from New Orleans, and went cruising along
! the coasts Of the State and the fragrant
| islands of the Caribbean Sea-for guano.
He loaded his ship with what he believed
| to be this valuable fertilizer, but when it
arrived at New Orleans, alas it turned
out to be nothing in the world but the
| coarse sand peculiar to this locality which
the deluded New Yorker had scooped up
| by the ton.
That reminds me of an enterprislng cap
italist from New England, who lately
started an extensive cocoanut plantation
a few miles from Merida On a tract of
| 1000 acres he has set out 100000 trees
and expects to make therefrOm princely
fortune. 1t requires six years, anu told,
for the trees to begin to yield returns, and
| ii is estimated that in ten years from the
time of planting, the grove aforesaid will
pay 10 per cent on valuation of 81 ,000,-
600, $4,000 having been invested.
A full-grown tree will mature from 60 to
100 nuts annually. In reality, the cocoa
nut is one of the most valuable trees in
the world, nearly every part of it being
useful to man. The natives eat the Young
roots, and weave them into baskets. The
tender leaves are cooked, like cabbage, and
the old leaves are made into cloth, hats.
! hou fans oFo r. =. Il
for bedding, for thatching roofs, for fish
ing-nets, even for writing paper. The
magnificent trunk of the tree furnishes
canoes, house posts and fences. The ribs
of the leaves are so strong that they make
excellent paddles for boats, arrows, combs,
torches, and no end of other things. When
the wood is burned it makes the very best
| potash for soap. By i process of fermenta-
ton good vinegar can be obtained from it ;
and also fair kind of sugar. which the
Yucatecos call "jaggery." The name of
the fruit is derived from the Portuguese
word cocoa and the English word nut.
Cocoa means an ugly mask" and is said
to have been given because the end of 4
cocoanut looks like donkey's face.
Ramie, vegetable silk, is another fiber
whose cultivation is destined to become of
great Importance, and much attention is
just now being paid to it. 1t grows wild
in the hot sands of the coast, and is here
! known as " silk-grass." 1t is member of
the brOmelta family, and produces beau
tiful, long, glossy fiber, to-day worth 80
cents per pound in Manchester, where the
demand is immensely ahead of the present
supply.
In this part of the hemisphere we are
sometimes as badly bothered with grass
hoppers as Kansas used to be. Not long
ago the vicinity of Ticul was visited by
clouds of them. After devouring all be-
fore them and utterly running several
haciendas, they settled down into Lake
Ticul, and soon the inhabitants were
obliged to turn out en- masse and fish them
up and bury them in trenches, for the mill
ions of dead insects began to faint the air
in horrible manner.
FANNIE B. WARD.