ABACA (MANILA HEMP) — EDWARDS 331 



States Navy. After 1824 this fiber began to be used very extensively 

 in Salem and Boston. Apparently the first commercial shipment of 

 abaca from the Philippines was 41 tons exported in 1818. The ex- 

 ports increased to 276 tons in 1825, and 8,561 tons in 1850. Fifty years 

 later, in 1900, abaca exports from the Philippines were 89,438 tons. 

 From 1900 to 1908 abaca represented more than 60 percent of the total 

 value of all Philippine exports. 



ABACA IN THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS 



Abaca fiber is produced in the Philippines under a wide range of 

 conditions. In the hill country of southern Luzon, the Visayan 

 Islands, and northern Mindanao, there are thousands of Filipino 

 farmers who have small plantings of abaca and who clean the fiber 

 with the crude stripping knives that probably were used centuries ago. 

 When abaca is planted under these conditions, a small area of forest 

 land is cleared and the rootstocks or suckers are set out in holes that 

 have been dug with a bolo (machete) . There is no cultivation except 

 a partial cutting down of shrubs and grass when the abaca is har- 

 vested. The crop is harvested irregularly and at the convenience of 

 the owner. The fiber is cleaned with the antiquated hand-stripping 

 apparatus, dried in the sun, and ordinarily is sold to a local Chinese 

 middleman. As there is no uniformity in the stripping knives, large 

 quantities of fiber of inferior quality are produced. 



During the period of Spanish occupation of the Philippines fairly 

 large abaca plantations were established. The methods used on these 

 plantations, although an improvement on the native cultivation, were 

 relatively primitive. Abaca was planted in rows, but essentially the 

 same method of planting was used. The periods of harvesting were 

 more regular, but there was no cultivation of the fields and the fiber 

 was cleaned by hand-stripping. For the work of stripping the fiber 

 and clearing the fields, the workers usually received approximately 

 one-half of the product. The owners of these plantations were fa- 

 miliar with market conditions, and more attention was given to the 

 production of fiber of good quality. 



In 1904, a few years after American occupation of the Philippines, 

 an agricultural survey was made of the District of Davao in southern 

 Mindanao and the information obtained by this survey was published. 

 At that time large areas of unoccupied government land were available 

 in Davao, and the climatic and soil conditions of this region were 

 exceptionally favorable for abaca. Several small abaca plantation 

 companies were organized in Manila, and a number of Americans went 

 to Davao for the purpose of establishing abaca plantations. This 

 development marked the beginning of a new era in the production of 

 abaca. The American planters, realizing the imperfections in the 



