Evening star., 1900-06-30

lie back in his easy CHR and spend his time
counting his shekels. The harvesting is
chiefly done on the shares, the harvesters
receiving half the crop.
The hands work in couples, two men go
ing 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 its
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 central
core and number of white leaves which
run the full length of the stalk. These
leaves contain the fiber known hemp.
The man strips the leaves off one by one
from the core, and throwing them over his
shoulders carries them to his partner, who
does what We call the stripping.
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
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
it down tight upon the leaf and pressing it
against the log. AS he pulls it he wraps
the fiber about stick in order that there
may be no danger of breaking it. When it
has been drawn under the knife it looks
just like 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 planter
usually buys the hemp gathered from his
own plantation, paying his workmen for
their half of it. The prices at times range
pounds Owing to the war hemp is now
very high, selling at S25 in silver for 14O
pounds. 1t sometimes brings as much as
$50 or $500 ton in American money, and
has brought in London as much as 5000
ton. This however. can be raised in but
small quantities, and it should not be re-
garded as a criterion in considering the
hemp possibilities.
The Growth of the Industry.
Hemp has been steadily going up in price
since it was first exported, and this not
withstanding the size of the crop has
trebled in the last twenty years. About
fifty years ago the price was between 81
and s. per picul. In the next decade it
rose to 50, and in the eighties the average
price was $11. Ten years later 1t had risen
to SIT, and it is now, l have said, up to
SO. These high prices are caused by the
war. and there will probably be fall with
In the near future At present 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 supply all the children
with jumping ropes. and still leave much
to spare. 1t would, in fact, give three
pounds of hemp to every man, woman and
child in our country, and not exhaust the
supply by 25,0Oo.O 600 pounds
OF this amount the United States takes
more than one-third We use more Manila
hemp than all Europe, excepting England,
Great Britain coming next to us, but she
acts rather as middleman for Europe
than as an actual user herself.
In the Warehouses.
During my stay in Manila l spent some
time in the great hemp warehouses. There
are perhaps a dozen of them where the
most of the product is sent to be sorted
and classified before it is shipped to the
markets of the world. 1t is taken to Ma
nia from the islands in sailing vessels and
small steamers, and it is brought in from
the interior of LuZon in cascoes. or great
barses. which are pushed along through
the river with poles.
Some cf the warehouses are enormous.
The one | visited had more than a million
dollars worth of produce of one kind or
another stored away in it. 1t was a great
white two-s.ory building, covering almost
an acre, situated on the banks of the Pasi,s
river, not far from the bay, and at the