The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1900-07-27
Frank Carpenters Last
Letter.
A PHILIPPINE INDUSTRY
How Farms Are Managed so as to
Yield an Immense Ptft--labor
Question.

DAVAO, July /, lgO0.-The Philippine
islands could furnish gallows enough 70
hang the whole human race. Their chlef
product is hemp. and they sell about -
On.oo0 silver dollars worth OF II every
year. You see hemp spread out to dry u
the streets of the principal towns. II "
carried In from the country on buffalo
carts or on the backs of men, and ma % y
a petty CHINESE merchant has made his
fortune by dealing in IL. We pay every
year several million dollars for the ma
MIA hemp which we use. II is sent to
New York, Boston and other cities. nud
there made into all kinds of rope. from
clothes lines to cab,es a vast deal OF II
goes to the Northwest to make binding
Irvine for harvesting. Some of II IL en-
ployed In our golu, silver and iron mines.
and the finer qualities are mixed with
silk and used in weaving. 1t Is made In
to hammocks. 1t Is used for nets and in
Paris IT goes into making of hats. tapes
try and carpets. From the waste and
old ropes Manila wrapping paper is made.
and here in the Philippines the finest OF
the fiber mixed with the threads OF the
pineapple. 10 woven into an exquisite
stuff known as Jus! cloth, which the
American ladies buy for party dresses
and which is commonly used by the rich
err of our Filipino sisters.
There are thousands of men in these
islands who live off the hemp industry,
and there are merchants here who have
made fortunes out of shipping the prod
uct abroad Some of the best opportun-
ties for fortune making in the Philippines
are in planting and raising hemp, and In
the future there will be many Americans
engaged in the different branches of the
industry.
WHERE THE HEMP COMES FROM.
find that the hemp plant grows in
nearly every one of the Philippine ISL
ands. There are provinces in Luzon which
are supported almost entirely by 1t, and
the islands of Leyte and Samar raise
thousands of bales of it everysyear. When
the ports of the eastern part of the Phil
ippines were opened up, about hundred
Thousand bales were found there ready
for shipment, and today there are steam
ers loaded with them going out from the
Philippines.
The province of Alhay, which is in the
southeastern part of Luzon, IS one of the
best hemp districts, yielding more
than six million pounds of the uff an
nunlly. A great deal of 1t is produced In
Cebu. and a limited quantity on this ISL
and of Mindanao. Some of the finest
hemp grown comes from here. and there
are thousands of acres, l might also say
millions of acres, which could be turned
to hemp raising.
From inquiries which have made
from people interested in the subject, the
available teri tory has hardly been touch
ed. and the product might be made ten
times as large as 1t Is. So far the Phi
ippine islands are the only places In the
world where the hemp, plant has been
Suco essfully grown. Attempts have been
made to raise'it in India and elsewhere,
but so far none has succeeded.
A VISIT TO A HEMP PLANTATION.
spent this morning going through one
OF the largest of the hemp plantations Of
Nindanao. If you have ever seen ba-
mana grove you can imagine how the
plantation looks. The hemp plant or
abaCa, as 1t is here called, is the musa
teStil s, species of the same family as
the edible banana, whose botanical name
is the musa parad ,saica. A hemp tree
looks just like banana tree. 1t is more
OF a plant than tree, scrouting up
from the ground to a height of from
twenty to twenty-five feet, composed OF
many leaves wrapped round and round
about a central stalk. which, when the
plant is full grown. towers high in the
air above you. The outer leaves are each
a foot wide. and ten feet or more long.
AS they grow upward they branch out
from the stalk. shading the ground. I ne
hemp comes from the inner leaves, which
are tightly wrapped around the central
stem, there being many of them thai
the plant at its base Is from eight to
ten inches thick.
AS 1t stands in the field the plant stalk
is as crisp and juicy as a stalk of celery,
and II can easily be cut down with a
carving knife. The men ! saw cutting
used bolos. the same knives that they use
for cutting off heads, They are not un-
like our corn cutters, save that they are
heavier. and that as n usual thing they
are kept as sharp as razor.
had to go some distance from Davao
to reach the hemp plantation. After en-
tered II | kept close to my guide, for II
was so large that | might have lost my
self in 1t and spent days finding my way
out. There were thousands upon thou
sands of these abaca or hemp plants
making a vertable forest, or rather a
jungle in whic.. there were neither roads
nor paths. The plants were about six
or eight feet apart and they shaded the
ground so that we walked in semi-dark-
ness In going through II. although 1t was
almost midday. Now and then we STUN
bled upon a cocoanut tree, but as rule
there was nothing but hemp, hemp, hemp,
Here and there a stalk had been cut out,
but sprouts were growing up from the
bottom, and am told that a hemp plan
tation once started will keep on repro
ducing itself
HOW HEMP is GROWN.
From one of the propretors I learned
how the orchard was started, or In other
words. how hemp is grown. 1t thrives
best upon a hill side where there is plen-
ty OF moisture, but where the water does
not stand so as to rot 1t. The land is
first cleared. many of the larger trees be-
Ing left standing IN order 10 shade the
young plants Ihe ground Is burned over
and the sprouts, which are usually the
suckers taken from an older plantation,
are set out about six or eight feet apart.
They grow rapidly, but Il is three years
before they are ready for use. After this
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 I'm sugar and rice. The only Gull
tiyatiOn necessary il To keen down the