228 Mil. M'Micking on the Mode of Preparing Manila Hemp. 



The plant is felled at the time when it is about to produce fruit; the 

 upper extremity ok head is also cut off, and the leaves removed. The 

 layers of the tree, or herbaceous plant, are torn off one by one, and the 

 fine skin from the inner surface removed with the knife, which every 

 Manila man carries in a sheath in the waist-string of his trousers, like 

 many of oof sailors. The layer, or roll, when stript of its skin on the 

 inner surface, is torn into strips, of about two fingers '-breadth. One of 

 these strips is placed on a plank, or rude table, the inner skinless surface 

 oexl the table, on which it is pressed by the sharp edge of a knife. Of 

 course, the knife may be held by the hand, but an easier way, and which 

 was done when the process was shown to me, is to fasten the knife to the 

 table by a string, where the blade joins the handle, and the outer end of 

 the handle being pressed upwards, by a piece of bent bamboo doing the 

 work of a spring, the sharp edge presses down against the outer 

 surface of the strip on the table, with sufficient force to penetrate the soft 

 pulpy substance, though not with such force as to wound or cut the stringy 

 fibre. The workman grasps an end of the layer or strip thus held to the 

 table by the knife edge, and pulls it towards him. I can best explain 

 the degree of force necessary, by saying, that, when I tried it, I had to 

 exert my strength, an easy pull did not suffice. The pulpy substance 

 remains on the side of the knife away from the workman, who pulls the 

 clean fibres towards him. When entirely pulled through, he changes it 

 end for end, grasping the clean fibre, and pulling towards him underneath 

 the knife the portion first held in his hand, which, in like manner, on 

 being pulled through, becomes cleaned fibre. If not sufficiently cleaned, 

 the process is repeated a second time ; but this is unusual in practice. 

 The specimen of hemp now produced is long and well cleaned, conse- 

 quently of good quality. It is part of what was made when the process 

 was shown to me. The hemp of commerce is sometimes shorter, from the 

 stem of the musa plant being cut into lengths, for convenience of lifting 

 it from the place in which it is felled to where the workmen are. The 

 hemp is also sometimes matted, from portions of the pulpy substance or 

 skin adhering to the fibres, when the workmen are careless or unskilful. 



The portions, as cleaned, are hung up for an hour or two to dry, if in 

 the open air, on any branch of a tree at hand ; or, if in a house, on a peg 

 in the wall. No further preparation is necessary for the ordinary Manila 

 hemp of commerce. The product of a day's — probably not hard work — 

 of three persons, is about 14 lbs. 



Of tho fibres thus prepared, some are fine, and fit for being woven into 

 cloth of considerable fineness and beauty. Such fibres the women pick 

 out, and roll up tightly into a ball, as big as a child's head. This is 

 placed in the wooden mortar, of which there is one in every house for 

 husking rice, and pounded for some time with the wooden pestle. This 

 operation renders the fibre flexible, and less liable to break. The ends 

 are then knotted together by women and girls, to form a continuous 

 thread. The weaving process is the same ns for cotton fabrics. In 



