10 FARMERS' BULLETIN. 



necessity of an abundant rainfall and high relative humidity of the atmos- 

 phere. These characteristics of any situation to be devoted to Musa \ 

 textilis insure a more vigorous development of the plant and consequently \ 

 a greater production and a better quality of fiber. /But it must not be 

 supposed that the plant requires a wet soil. Moisture is what it demands \ 

 and not water. The plant will not thrive in marshy land, no matter what 

 the rainfall and protection from wind and sun may be. In its natural 

 choosing the plant selects the well-drained mountain slopes and the* 

 sloping valleys lying between their spurs. In these situations sufficient \ 

 trees grow or are left to grow to protect the fiEer plants from the fullest 

 rays of the sun and from the strong winds. In addition to this the soil 

 is naturally well drained, is rich in humus, and in such places there are 

 usually washings and other movements of the soil sufficient to answer for 

 a sort of cultivation.. 



In many sections even where rainfall is sufficient much land could be 

 profitably devoted to the growing of Musa textilis and the production 

 of Manila hemp by giving the land sufficient drainage. Drainage by 

 surface ditches is one method which might be practiced. It is not the ] 

 most practical method, but vnder the present conditions of labor and the j 

 difficulty of obtaining tiles it can be made to serve broad purposes. This 

 method has another point favoring it, in that the ditches can be made 

 between every other row, and ~> the rows are wide enough apart, the 

 ditches will not materially interfere with the crop. This method is almost ' 

 exclusively followed by the coffee growers in Java and the tea growers in j 

 Asam and India. But looking forward to better labor conditions, a 

 greater development of the hemp industry, and the perfection of the \ 

 means for making drain tiles here in the Islands, for which there is 

 abundant material, drainage by underground conduits is the most practi- j 

 cable, and, in the end, the cheapest method of draining land. 

 /The cultivation of Musa textilis is not a difficult matter; though 

 judicious care and shading will bring good harvests. The plants are set 

 in rows from 5 to 8 feet each way, and until they reach maturity it is 

 necessary to keep the weeds in subjection. The plants reach maturity in 

 from two and one-half to three and one-half years, when they are usually 

 left to themselves with the exception that coarse weeds are kept out. It 

 is quite necessary that the ground be kept covered with some herbage, for 

 the land is usually so rolling that otherwise washing would do much J 

 damage. No better scheme could be employed, either on rolling or level 

 land, than that of sowing in the plantation some of the clovers or other 

 leguminous crops that grow well in the Philippines, -which would not only 

 bind the soil to prevent washing, but would add to the soil a most useful 

 element, nitrogen. In most situations trees are either left growing in the 

 plantations or are afterwards planted for the purpose of shading the 

 plants to some extent from the glaring rays of the sun and to break the 

 force of the winds which would tear the leaves to pieces and retard the 



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