344 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 194 5 



ment. After a period of 18 years, although an occasional young or 

 weak abaca plant developed "Panama" disease, the menace was not 

 serious for the greatly needed wartime production. 



A so-called Abaca Garden containing plots of all the different varie- 

 ties was established at Farm Nine. Hybridization work was started 

 in 1927 and continued through 1928. Seventy-four combinations had 

 been made between the different varieties, and some of these new hy- 

 brids were very promising. Subsequently, during the years when the 

 abaca project was temporarily abandoned, it became necessary to dis- 

 continue this work, but it was later resumed. A preliminary series of 

 fiber-cleaning tests were conducted during the latter part of 1927. 

 Although no mature abaca stalks were available at that time, and the 

 laborers who did the cleaning were entirely inexperienced in work of 

 this character, fiber of very promising quality was obtained. Samples 

 of this fiber that were subsequently tested at the National Bureau of 

 Standards in Washington had an average breaking strength equal to 

 that of good grades of Philippine abaca fiber. 



With a fairly large supply of propagating material available, two 

 25-acre field plantings were made during 1928 in locations having 

 somewhat different soil conditions. Five different varieties of abaca 

 and four different planting systems were used. The luxuriant growth 

 of abaca in this region indicated that a wider spacing than the 10 by 

 10 feet, which is the usual Davao system, would be necessary. In 

 making these plantings, the practices followed were essentially the 

 same as those used for bananas. This procedure seemed to be advis- 

 able because all the local labor is familiar with the methods used in 

 planting and cultivating bananas. The abaca in these fields made an 

 excellent growth, and the plants when 1 year old compared favorably 

 in size and quality with abaca plants grown under similar conditions 

 in the Philippine Islands. 



By 1929, so well had these early plantings succeeded that considera- 

 tion was being given by the United Fruit Co. to further expansion, and 

 to the need for information on which to base commercial development. 

 One of the small Hagotan fiber-cleaning machines was obtained from 

 the Philippine Islands, and in August 1929 about 1,000 pounds of 

 Panama abaca fiber were shipped to Boston, Mass., for manufacturing 

 tests. The tensile strength of the rope manufactured from this fiber 

 was slightly higher than common Manila rope. A few months later 

 a number of abaca stalks were shipped from Panama to Paterson, 

 N. J., for cleaning tests with a sisal-fiber-cleaning machine. It was 

 demonstrated that abaca could be cleaned with this machine, but the 

 fiber obtained was not of satisfactory quality. 



During the early part of 1930 estimates covering the cost of estab- 

 lishing and developing a 1,000-acre abaca planting in Panama were 



