164 CORDAGE FIBRES 



BANANA AND PLANTAIN FIBRES 



Besides the Manila hemp plant, there are several 

 other species of Musa which bear fibrous leaf-sheaths. 

 Among these the most common is the ordinary 

 fruiting banana. The fibre extracted from this plant 

 is, however, generally much weaker than Manila hemp, 

 and would be of comparatively little value for cordage 

 manufacture. There are enormous quantities of 

 banana stems cut down after the fruit harvest and 

 thrown away, which presumably might be employed 

 for the production of fibre. It must be borne in 

 mind, however, that when the market values of other 

 cordage fibres, such as Manila and Sisal hemps, are 

 low, the fibre of the fruiting banana would only realise 

 very low prices and would not be profitable to extract . 

 It has been suggested that the banana leaf-sheaths 

 might well be employed on the spot for conversion 

 into pulp for paper-making. The product might 

 either be exported as pulp or manufactured into paper. 

 The erection of pulp or paper mills involves a large 

 initial outlay, but in the case of a country with a 

 large banana industry, it is possible that it might 

 yield a satisfactory return. On the other hand, it 

 has been pointed out that for the manufacture of one 

 ton of paper, no less than 132 tons of the raw material 

 would have to be handled, and that the cost of collect- 

 ing, cleaning, drying and crushing the material, and 

 converting it into pulp, would be very considerable. 

 Moreover, the class of paper produced would not be 

 of very good quality. 



Experiments made in Jamaica in 1884 showed that 

 a banana stem after fruiting, which weighed 108 lb., 

 yielded 25 oz. of clean fibre or about 1-44 per cent, of 

 its gross weight. The stems of the plantain, which is 

 used as a vegetable, gave yields amounting to about 

 2 per cent, of a fibre which was superior to the banana 

 fibre, being whiter and finer and more like Manila 

 hemp. 



In the East Africa Protectorate, there is a banana 

 plant (Musa Livingstoniana) which grows wild in 

 several districts, and yields a fibre of good quality. 



