ABACA OR MANILA FIBRE 



309 



many years. The plant must be three or more years of age before 

 a crop can be obtained, but when one crop is cut it again grows 

 from the base without replanting. The harvesting begins when 

 the flower buds appear on the plants. At that time they may 

 have reached a height of from ten to fifteen feet. The long leaves 

 which constitute a large part of the harvest may be ten feet 

 in length. 



This crop is not put through a retting process, as in flax and 

 true hemp, but the leaves when cut are ripped into long narrow 

 strips by use of knives. These are drawn by hand under the edge 

 of a knife resting on a wooden board. This scrapes away the 



FIG. 202. 



Fio. 203. 



FIG. 202. Abaca (Manila hemp) plants making a very poor growth in Porto Rico. 

 The leaves are badly torn by the wind and the stems more slender than those in the Philip- 

 pines. Fibre is obtained from the overlapping leaf stem forming the trunks. A variety of 

 sisal is growing in the background. (U. S. D. A.) 



FIG. 203. Henequin ten-year-old plants from which five crops of leaves have been cut. 

 The fibre used for making binder-twine is cleaned by machines directly from the freshly 

 cut leaves. (U. S. D. A.) 



epidermis and pulp, leaving the leaf fibres as the desired product. 

 This hand labor is slow and constitutes the chief expense in the 

 production of the crop. Five hundred pounds per acre of the 

 finished fibre is a good annual yield. 



" Manila" rope as found in our markets is chiefly made of 

 this fibre and a good idea of it may be obtained by ravelling out 

 a piece of such rope and combining it with a coarse hair r,omb or 

 with the fingers. Its great value as compared with othor fibres 

 of the world is due to the great length of the individual fibres 

 in addition to their natural strength. 



