166 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 



May -21, 1904. 



PINE-APPLE FIBRE. 



Farmer-i' Balb'tin No. 4, of the Philippine Bureau 

 of Agriculture, entitled : ' Preliminary report on the 

 coniniercial fibres of the Philippines ' gives an interest- 

 ing account of the extraction and use.s of pine-apple 

 fibre. It is mentioned that this fibre has long been 

 appreciated in countries where the pine-apple flourishes, 

 on account of its strength, fineness, and durability in 

 water. It is used in India and China for thread and 

 woven into cloth, the Chinese importing the fibre from 

 Singapore : — 



Li the provinces of the Philiiii)ines, where the plaut.s 

 are grown for fibre, the fruit is cut shortly after Howering, in 

 order that the leaves may develop more fully. When the 

 leaves are mature, they must be cut before they become old, 

 and worked as soon as possible after cutting. The filire is so 

 fine that it cannot be separated from the pulp when the 

 leaves are old and dry. As in the extraction of Manila liemp 

 and maguey, the i>ine-apiile fibre is al.so extracted in a simple 

 and iirimitive way. The fibre is too light and fine to admit 

 of being drawn as itanila hemp is drawn, so the natives in 

 Southern I^uzon and Pana_v resort to a method of scraping. 

 The freshly cut leaves are sj>read upon a narrow bench, and 

 with light short strokes of an iron scraper, the edge of which 

 is not too sharp, the epidermis is scraped oft'. Sometimes 

 a bamboo or wooden scraper is used, and while this method 

 is slower, yet tliere is less waste, and a softer quality of fibre 

 is produced. This exposes a laj-er of fibre which is lifted ly 

 the fingers or a small spatula. The scraping is then con- 

 tinued until another layer of fibre is exi)Osed, and this 

 in turn is lifted awaj-. The process continues until all 

 the fibres of the leaf are separated out. As the 

 fibre is separated it is washed in clear water, and laid out in 

 the sun to dry and bleach. The washing and drying may be 

 repeated until the fibre [lo-ssesses the texture and whiteness 

 desired. 



A mature plant has about forty leaves from 1^ to 3 

 inches broad and ranging from 2 to 5 feet long. In the 

 provinces of Iloilo and Antique, where pine-apple plants are 

 grown largely for their fibre, a ton of leaves, about 22,000, 

 produces from 50 to 6.5 lb. of dry fibre. This is a small yield 

 when we take into consideration the number of leaves which 

 have to be handled and the labour of extracting the fibre. 

 Before the pine-ajiiile filjre can become a very important 

 commercial produot, machines will have to be devised for 

 extracting the fibre on plantations more extensive than those 

 worked at present. Two machines have been used, the Van 

 Buren and the Sanford JIallory, but they have not j'et lieen 

 able to produce a quantity of fibre sufficient to uiake their 

 use economical. 



The pine-apple fibre has not yet been produced in 

 quantities sufficient to give it commercial importance. But 

 no doubt it is destined to a more extensive use than • at 

 present, as it possesses unique qualities. The fabrics called 

 ' pina ' and ' rengue,' mamifactured from it here in the 

 Philippines, are constantly becoming more popular in l>oth 

 Europe and America, and there is a growing demand for 

 these fabrics for embroidery. The rengue and [lina are now 

 valued at from 25 to 75c. per yartl, and the fibre in the 

 London market has been adjudged worth X30 per tfin. 



The fibre is also used for small cordage where great 

 strength is recpiired. In Calcutta a rope 3| inches in 

 circumference was tested and bore a strain of 5,700 Hj. It 

 has been suggested that the dried leaves from the fruit 

 plantations could be used for paper stock, but as yet no trials 

 along this line have been made. 



INSECTS AND DISEASE. 



The following is a further extract from Sir 

 Patrick Manson's lecture at the West India Committee 

 Rooms on the disease problem in the West Indies : — 



From what I have said you will be struck with the 

 importance of the role i>layed by the mosquito in the 

 dirt'usion of tropical disease. In truth, take away mosipiitos, 

 and the tropics would be as healthy, if not healthier, 

 than England. The fact of the matter is that it is oidy now 

 we are beginning to recognize that nearly all the grave 

 diseases of the tropics, and some of the grave diseases of 

 temiierate climates, are conveyed by the instrumentality of 

 mosijuito.s, flies, ticks, Heas, and certain other small deer 

 with names not to be mentioned in polite society. It is a 

 humiliating confession to have to make, but is nevertheless 

 true, that until lately man was not the lord of creation ; the 

 flies that buzzed about him or the fleas that he carried on 

 his person were his masters. We now begin to apprehend 

 the rationale of cleanliness, of how it conduces to health. 

 Dirt means vermin — vermin which bite, and by their bite 

 transfer other and more deadly vermin. And not only is 

 this the case as regards man ; it is equallj- the case as 

 regards the domestic animals. Thus the germ of a virulent 

 cattle disease common in many parts of America, of the 

 Cape, of Australia, and even of the south of Europe, is 

 passed from cow to cow by the cattle tick. Nature rarely 

 loses an opportunity of fostering parasitic life. The 

 oi>portunity suiijilieil by the habits of the blood-sucking 

 in.sects is one which she has not neglected. She sometimes 

 seems to go a long way out of her usual direct and sinqile 

 course in order that so good an opi)ortunity be not lost. 

 Thus certain blood-sucking creatures, like the ticks, feed 

 only once, and so cannot directly transfer disease germs 

 from animal to animal. To get over this ditticulty in the 

 case of the ticks, nature has arranged that the disease gerra 

 shall pass into the egg of the mother tick and thus into the 

 blood of the cow the young tick feeds on. There is a 

 devilish sort of ingenuity in this utilization of lilood-sucking 

 insects in the conveyance of disea.se germs : it looks like 

 design, but surely design of a vindictive order. 



SISAL HEMP IN QUEENSLAND. 



The following note on the cultivation of sisal 

 hemp in Queensland is taken from the Textile Merc vni 

 of April 23:— 



A .sample of sisal hemp, grown at St. Helena, was 

 recently forwarded to ^Messrs. .Tames Miller and Co., 

 ilelbiiurne, by the Queensland Deiiartment of Agriculture. 

 Messrs. Miller have expressed a high opinion of the sample, 

 and stated that there is a demand for at least 2,000 tons 

 yearlj, the value of which would range from £30 to X35 

 per ton, according to quality. 



Sisal hemp is now being grown in Queensland, and £30 

 to £.35 per ton is the market price obtained. It is estimated 

 that 2,000 tons a year can be disposed of in Australia itself, 

 where it might be largely used for the manufacture of 

 binder twine. Sisal is practically a modern fibre, and in 

 Messrs. W. F. Malcolm and Co.'s hemp report for last year 

 the consumption is put down at 010,000 bales — an increase 

 of 74,000 bales on the previous year. Maiula and New 

 Zealand hemps are just now very high in price, and as the 

 world's demand for fibre is somewhat greater than the 

 production, there may well be a good oj)ening for the 

 production of this article in Queensland. 



