Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1899-07-05
MANILA HEMP TRADE.
THE CHARACTER OF THE INDUSTRY
IN THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS.

Making Rope, Cordage and Cloth-The
Crude Machinery Used Injuries the Fibre.
Manila. hemp, called in Spanish
abaca, is grown successfully in the
Philippine Islands only. Attempts
have been made to grow the plant else
where, as, for example, in Saigon,
China, and in British North BorDeo;
but the results have not been salts.
factory.
The plant from which the hemp is
made belongs to the banana family
and resembles very much the ordi-
nary banana tree, its leaves. however,
being darker and shorter than the
leaves of that tree. The hemp plant
dourishes best on hilly lands and
mountain sides, where it can be we'll
shaded by trees of thick foliage. Al
though it requires q considerable
amount of moisture, it does not do
well in swampy lands.
The province of Albay, in the island
OF Luzon, is the greatest ,hemp-pro-
ducing. district in the archipelago; but
the finest quality of hemp comes from
thesisland of Leyte, which also nearly
equals Albay in amount of output.
The other hemp-producing districts
are: Provinces OF Camarines Sur,
Camarines Norte and Tayabas, in Lu-:
zon island; the islands OF Samar, Mar
indYaue, Mindanao. Cebu and Negros.
-Four years from the time of plant
ing the seed are reedful before the
plant leaves are ready for the knife,
but only three years if shoots be set
out The general custom among
planters, however, is to transplant
six months old suckers. The shoots
are set out in squares, about six feet
between each shoot, and in starting a
hemp plantation in forest lands the
large forest trees are left standing to
shade the young shoots. After the
first three or four years of waiting, a
hemp plantation is usually a safe and
profitable investment, as the plants
are seldom damaged by typhoons be-
causeof the protection furnished by the
forest trees; the plantations are gener-
ally on high lands and therefore suffer
little from foods; locusts do not attack
the leaves in the way they do almost
everything else green on the island;
fires cannot spread far among the
rank foliage; no costly machinery is
required on the plantations, and no
blowing is necessary, although care
full wedding is required; the plants
can, be harvested all the year round,
rs they come to maturity. The leaves
should be cut for the fibre, however,
when the plant is towering, nor
should the plant be allowed to go to
seed, for if allowed to bear fruit the
fibre will be weakened The average
weight of dry fibre from one plant is
about ten ounces, and the yield from
well-managed plantation is $50
pounds of dry fibre to the acre.
The method of making hemp is q
very primitive one. The leaves that
shoot out from the trunk of the plant,
after being detached, are separated
into strips five or six inches wide, and
from five to six and half feet long.
TO separate the fibre from the pulp,
these strips or basis, as they are
called, are drawn under knife that is
fastened at one end by a'hinge to a
wooden block, A cord and treadle
are attached to the other end of the
knife, and the operator, by working
the ,treadle, can regulate the pressure
OF the knife upon the bast. The edge
of the knife should be smooth and
keen, but too often it is serrated, as
the work then is easier for the native
at the treadle. AS the. bast is drawn
through, the fibre is wound around a
stick of wood. The natives work in
pairs, one man stripping the bast and
The other drawing it under the knife.
In this way two men eau turn out
abont 300 pounds of dry fibre in a
week. f53
Machines to take the place of the
crude apparatus described have been
tried, but all have failed to answer the
purpose, as all of them discolored the
FIBRE Machines with metal cylinders
andmachines with glass cylinders, to
wind the fibre on, have been tried, but
all injured the hemp. Dealers and
growers try to enforce the use of
knives without teeth or indentations,
so that the fibre may be fine, clean
and white, but they have met with but
little success.
Manila hemp-for this name is given
to the product from all of the Philip
pine Islands lis classified by Manila
firms as first, second and third quail
Aties. The middle men, or copia-
lores, in dealing with the native COL
Siectors of small quantities, divide the
1 hemp into two classes: First quality,
\ corriente, and second quality, -colora-
y do. Although there are few hemp
plants that viii give winter fibre
than others, it is probable that all
would yield frst-class hemp, abaca
corriente, if the natives could be made
to cut the plant during the towering
season only. draw the fibre under a
toothless knife the same day that the
bast~is stripped and sun-dry at the
first opportunity. The native, too,
often strips the plant whenever he
needs few dollars, and leaves the
basis exposed to the rain and all sorts
cs weather until they are sostened by
putrefaction and the fbres weakened,
because then-they are easier to work
under the knife:
In Manila the large export houses
fix the price on corriente abaca, and
allow proportionate price for second
and third qualities.
In addition to the uses to which
hemp is put up making rope and cord
age, the natives weave from the fine
tibres, carefully selected,a a cloth called
Bicol dialect, lupis; from the coarser
fibres very strong aud durable cloth,
called all over the archipelago sina-
may, is made. This cloth is worn by
all of the poorer classes. From a
mixture of the fbres of the pineapple