222 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



THE VEGETABLE FIBERS OF THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 



By H. TAYLOR EDWARDS, 



BUREAU OF AGRICULTURE, MANILA. 



r I iHEEE is probably no country of equal size in the world having 

 -*- a greater variety or wealth of vegetable fibers than the Philip- 

 pine Islands. These fibers are of every class and of every descrip- 

 tion. They are obtained from the bast of the largest forest trees and 

 from the slender stems of twining ferns. Their uses range from the 

 manufacture of the most delicate and beautiful of textile fabrics to 

 the construction of cables, furniture and houses. As an article of 

 commerce, the one fiber, manila hemp, exceeds in value the combined 

 values of all other products of the islands. As a factor in the domestic 

 economy of the Filipino people, the fibrous plants of field and forest 

 furnish, with the exception of food, nearly all the necessities of life. 



The Relative Importance of the Fiber Industry. 



The relative position that the vegetable fibers hold among the 

 various agricultural products of the Philippine Islands is a subject 

 that is neither clearly nor generally understood. The development 

 of the various branches of the fiber industry will, in no inconsiderable 

 degree, determine the future industrial condition of the islands. Until 

 very recently there has been practically no machinery, no modern 

 methods of cultivation, no introduction of improved species and 

 varieties of plants; and yet, even under these unfavorable conditions, 

 the production of fiber has grown to be the leading industry of the 

 islands. To-day the vegetable fibers and fiber products form the most 

 important source of wealth of the archipelago. A brief investigation 

 of several of the more important of the fiber-producing plants should 

 be sufficient to give some little idea of the vegetable fiber in the Philip- 

 pines as a commercial product. Such an investigation, however, must 

 leave entirely out of consideration the greater part of the four or five 

 hundred so-called ' local ' fibers, the use of which plays an interesting 

 rind important part in the every-day life of the Filipino. To fully 

 appreciate the extensive use of these local fibers, one must go into the 

 fields and villages and homes of the native people. 



But two fibers are now exported from the Philippine Islands, 

 manila hemp and maguey. The latter has been, up to the present 

 time, of comparatively little importance; the annual exports of maguey 

 fiber amounting to something more than one thousand tons. Manila 

 hemp, however, is not only the leading article of export, but it con- 



