The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1900-07-25
HEMP CROPS PROFITABLE.
CONTINUED from Page ID

how the orchard was started, or in other
words how hemp is grown 1t thrives
best upon a hillside where there is plen-
.ty of moisture, but where the water does
not stand so as to rot it. The land is
first cleared, many of the larger trees be-
ing left standing in order to shade the
young plants. The ground Is burned over
and the sprouts, which are usually the I,
suckers taken from older plantation,
are set out about six eight feet apart.
They grow rapidly, but it is three years
before they are ready for use. After this II
time they can be cut right along through
out the year, the only caution observed
being to cut the plants when they are
just about ready to blossom and before
they bear fruit. Such plants as have |,
fruit do not make good hemp, the fiber
being weakened by the strength of the
plant going into the fruit. AS the plants
blossom the year around, the farmer can
be kept busy cutting; there is no danger
of his losing his crop by the hurry of har-
vest, as in sugar and rice. The only cul- 1
tivation necessary is to keep down the
weeds and now and then to set out fresh I
suckers.
! HARVESTING THE CROP.
Hemp farming, in fact, seems to the
.softest and easiest kind of agriculture /
have yet met with. A plantation once
started its owner is practically independ- |
| lie back in his easy chair and spend his
/ time counting lis shekels. The harvest |
ing is chiefly done on the shares, the
harvesters receiving half the crop.
The hands work in couples, two men
going together into the plantation to cut
DOWN the plants and prepare the stuff for
the market. They do this in the crudest
and simplest way. One man cuts down
the stalk chops off the top and strips off
it's outer leaves. He has now a white pole
five or six inches thick and from six to
ten feet long. This is made of soft CEN
| trail core and number of White leaves
which run the fun length of the stalk
These leaves contain the fiber known as
hemp. The man strips the leaves off one
by one from the core, and throwing them
over his shoulder, carries them to his
partner, who does what we call the strip
ping.
| The fiber is on the outside of the leaf,
the inside being made up of pulp which
must be squeezed out before the hemp is
ready for use. This is done by drawing
the leaves one by one under knife which
rests upon log in such a way that the
Juice and pulp are scraped out and only
the fiber is left The knife is fastened to
a treadle upon which the man puts his
foot forcing 1t down tight upon the leaf
and pressing ii against the log AS he
pulls 1t he wraps the fiber about stick
in order that there may be no danger of
under the knife it looks just like a skein
of fine silk and needs only drying to be
ready for the market. The drying is
done in the sun.
After this the stuff is put up in bundles
or twists much like hank of yarn and
carried to the stores for sale. The plant
er usually buys the hemp gathered from
his own plantation, paying his workmen
for their half of it. The price at times
ranges all the way from 81 to s25 a picul.
or 40 pounds. Owing to the war, hemp
4 is now very high, selling at $25 in silver
for 40 pounds. 1t sometimes brings as
much as $3.50 or $500 ton in American
money and there is one grade known as
Lupz which has brought in London as
much as 5000 a ton. This, however, car
be raised in but small quantities, and il
should not be regarded as criterion IN
considering the hemp possibilities.
THE GROWTH OF THE INDUSTRY.
Hemp has been steadily going up il
price since ii was first exported, and this
notwithstanding the size of the crop ha:
trebled in the last twenty years. About
fifty years ago the price was between
and S. per picul. In the next decade j
rose to 50, and in the sos the average
price was S11. Ten years later 1t hac
risen to S17, and it is now as l have said
up to s25. These high prices are caused
by the war. and there will probably be
fall within the near future. AT presen
the crop runs in the neighborhood of
quarter of "A billion pounds a year. enough
to give every family in the United States
enough for a clothes line and to suppl.
@ all the children with jumping ropes. AM
still leave much to spare. 1t would, II
! fact give three pounds of hemp to ever.
man, woman and child in our country
and not exhaust the supply by 25,OOo,0V
u pounds.
OF this amount the United States take
q f,-3
Mia hemp than all Europe. excepting Eng
n land, Great Britain coming next to us
but she acts rather as a middleman 10
Europe than as an actual user herself.
IN THE WAREHOUSES;.
During my stay in Manila / spent SOM
time in the great hemp warehouses
There are perhaps dozen of them wher
the most of the product is sent to b.
y sorted and classified before it is shippe'
to the markets of the world 1t is takel
- to Manila from the islands in sailing YES
sells and small steamers, and it is brough
in from the interior of Luzon in cascoes
or great barges which are pushed alon
through the river with poles.
Some of the warehouses are enormous
The one 1 visited had more than $1,000 90
q worth of produce of one kind or anothe
stored away in it. 1t was a great whit
two-story building, covering almost a
acre, situated on the banks of the Pasi
river, not far from the bay, and at tn
lower end of that section of Manila call
- ed Binendo. Cascoes and ships loade
with tobacco and hemp lay before It, an
o. bales of hemp were being carried out o
and into 1t by half-naked Chinese coolies
4 The coolies were laboring in pairs, eac
X pair carrying a bale in rattan sling up
Y on a pole which rested upon their Shoul
Y ders. In front of the warehouse a guam
y tity of hemp was spread out under tn
q sun to dry, and inside of 1t were stack
x and bales of this stuff, half filing tn
< great room from floor to ceiling.
x STRANGE METHODS FOR THE NINE
Y TENTH CENTURY.
~ I went inside and watched the balm
y and sort ing of the hemp for shipment ]
q was indeed a strange sight for the end @
q this century of invention and progress:
< Everything was done by hand. About fiji
K ty F'ilipinos were at work tearing tn
Y bales apart and sorting the stuff. whic
4 looked like strands and twists of silver