224 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



The fiber produced by the plant Musa textilis is known throughout 

 the civilized world as manila, or manila hemp. In the Philippine 

 Islands the name abaca (pronounced ab-a-kar) is applied to both plant 

 and fiber. This fiber is distinctly a Philippine product, for the abaca 

 plant, though introduced into India, Borneo and other countries, has 

 never been successfully cultivated other than in the Philippine Islands. 

 Manila hemp was first exported from the Philippines a century or 

 more ago. In 1820 samples of the fiber were brought to Salem, 

 Massachusetts by John White, a lieutenant in the United States navy, 

 and from 1824 to 1827 it began to be used quite extensively in Salem 

 and Boston. The growth of the industry is indicated by the increase 

 in exports of fiber, from 41 tons in 1818 to 137,752 tons in 1903. 



The common banana, Musa sapientum, the plantain, M. pamdisiaca, 

 and abaca, M. textilis, are closely related species of the same genus. 

 The banana plant produces a fiber similar in appearance to manila 

 hemp, but lacking in strength; while the fruit of abaca resembles the 

 banana, except that it is filled with large black seeds and has no eco- 

 nomic value. The abaca plant is a large tree-like herb fifteen to twenty- 

 five feet high, a single rootstock bearing from twelve to twenty stalks. 

 These stalks, from which the fiber is obtained, are formed of a series 

 of thick, fleshy, overlapping sheaths, each sheath being the petiole of a 

 leaf. 



At the time of flowering, which occurs when the plant is from 

 two and a half to three years old, the stalk is cut close to the ground 

 and the leaves are removed. The native laborer, sitting on the ground, 

 inserts under the bark or fibrous covering of one of the outer leaf 

 sheaths a small piece of bone called the 'locnit,' and with it tears off 

 a long ribbon-like strip of fibrous material. Each successive layer is 

 similarly treated down to the central stem of the trunk. The fiber 

 ribbons are collected in the field and are taken to a small bamboo hut 

 where the fiber extracting apparatus has been set up. This crude 

 machine, the ' panguijan,' consisting of a large knife fastened upon a 

 block of wood and operated by means of a bamboo spring and foot 

 lever, is the only method that has ever been discovered for extracting 

 manila hemp. The work of hemp-stripping is very exhausting, the 

 average result of a day's work being about twenty-five pounds of fiber. 

 The record of the numerous attempts and failures to perfect an abaca- 

 cleaning machine forms one of the most interesting chapters in the 

 industrial history of the islands. The introduction of such a machine 

 will be of almost incalculable benefit and will revolutionize the entire 

 hemp industry. 



The only treatment of hemp, after the completion of the stripping 

 process, is a few hours' drying in the sun. The fiber is then made up 

 into rough bales and packed over the mountains, or shipped in native 

 boats down the rivers, to the nearest seaport. From here it is taken 



