346 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 194 5 



through the Cordage Institute, would agree to buy all fiber produced 

 during a period of years at a price that would make it possible to 

 write off the investment. It was estimated that this project would 

 cost about $250,000. The work of assembling additional data both 

 on the plantation and in the cordage industry was started; and, at a 

 meeting of the Cordage Institute held in September, it was voted to 

 cooperate in this project. Several conferences were subsequently held 

 in New York and Boston, and in November the United Fruit Co. 

 decided to proceed with this work without any contract from the 

 manufacturers other than a guarantee that the product of 1,000 acres 

 would be purchased at the prevailing market price for comparable 

 fibers. 



PROGRESS DURING THE PREWAR PERIOD, 1937 TO 1941 



Early in 1937 two representatives of the United Fruit Co. visited the 

 Philippine Islands to study the conditions under which abaca fiber 

 was being produced in that country, especially to obtain detailed infor- 

 mation concerning the different methods of cleaning the fiber. It 

 was the opinion of the engineer who made this study that the results 

 obtained with the large fiber-cleaning machines in use at that time on 

 two of the Davao plantations were unsatisfactory, and that it might 

 be possible to build a machine of an entirely different type that would 

 produce a better quality of fiber. The work of designing and con- 

 structing this so-called water-knife machine was started, and a field 

 planting of 1,019 acres of abaca was made at Almirante during the 

 second half of 1937. The two 25-acre plantings that had been made 

 in 1928 furnished a supply of propagating material adequate for this 

 new 1,000-acre planting. 



With this relatively large area of abaca, it was then possible to con- 

 duct certain lines of experimental work relating to the production 

 of fiber under commercial conditions. As approximately 96 percent 

 in weight of the abaca stalk is waste material, the transportation of 

 the stalks from the fields to a centrally located cleaning plant is a 

 serious problem. In the production of bananas, mules are used for 

 transporting the bunches of fruit from the fields to the spur-railway 

 line; and it was found that abaca stalks cut into 6-foot lengths, which 

 are known as junks, could be moved in the same manner and at a 

 moderate cost. The acreage production of bananas has been mate- 

 rially increased by the use of a system of pruning, which is the removal 

 from each "mat" or hill of bananas of all but a limited number of stalks. 

 Experimental work in pruning abaca indicated that considerably in- 

 creased yields could also be obtained with this crop. While these field 

 experiments were under way, several shipments of abaca stalks were 

 made from Almirante to Boston where experimental work was being 

 conducted in the cleaning and processing of the fiber. 



