Greene County herald. (Leakesville, Miss.) 1898-current, 1899-08-03
MANILA HEMP TRADE.
THE CHARACTER OF THE INDUSTRY
IN THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS.

abaca, is grown successfully in the
Philippine Islands only. Attempts
have Leen made'to grow the plant else
where, as. for example, in Saigon,
China, and in British North Borneo;
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
fourishes best on hilly lands and
mountain sides, where it can be well
shaded by trees of thick foliage. Al
though it requires 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 tue archipelago; but
the finest quality of hemp comes from
the island 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
indu1ue, Mindanao, Cebu and Negros.
Four years from the time of plant
ing the seed are needful 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 lalds the
large forest trees are left standing to
shade the young shoots. After the
first three or four years of waiting,
hemp plantation is usually 4 safe and
profitable investment, as the plants
are seldom damaged by typhoons be-
cause OF the protection furnished by the
forest trees; the plantations are gener-
ally on high lands and therefore uli'er
little from floods 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
plowing is necessary, although care
full wedding is required; the plants
can be harvested all the year round,
as 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 a
very primitive one. The leaves that
shoot ont from the trunk of the plant,
after being detached, are separated
into strips five or six inches wide, and
from five to six and a half feet long.
To separate the fibre from the pulp,
these strips or basts, as they a"e
called, are drawn under a knife that is
fastened at one end by hinge to
wooden block A cord and a 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 can turn out
about 800 pounds Of dry fibre in
week.
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
and machines 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-is classified by Manil
firms as first, second and third quail
ties. The middle men, or copia-
dores, in dealing with the native col
lectors of small quantities, divide the
hemp into two classes: First quality,
corriente, and second quality, colora-
do. Although there are few hemp
plants that will give a winter fibre
than others, it is probable that all
would yield first-cass 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
of weather until they are softened by
putrefaction and the fibres weakened,
because then they are easier to work
under the knife.