18 



Agutay has a bad reputation which it deserves. To what has been 

 mentioned may be added another undesirable quality, and that is its 

 weakness of growth. It is one of the least hardy varieties of abaca. 



BAGUISANON LAWAAN. 



{Baguisanon Lawaan or simply Baguisanon, in some parts of Davao; Lack- 

 banon, along the north and east coasts of the Gulf of Davao; Ijalas, in Leyte; 

 Tinabono, in Oriental Negros; Baguisanon, in Cebu; and Baounon, in northern 

 Mindanao. ) 



Color of stalk. — When mature, light green color pervades the whole 

 stalk, even to the very base. 



Size of stalk. — The limit of the growth of abaca in size, as well as 

 height, is attained in this variety only. One of the stalks, cut for 

 experiments made in the Davao Eiver Valley, measured 1.16 meters in 

 circumference at the base, about 7 meters in height, and 166 kilos in 

 weight. 



Shape of stalk. — Thickness at the base about double that at the top. 



Tendency to produce suckers. — It produces as many stalks to the hill 

 as Bangulanon and often more. The stalks are packed close together, 

 making it very difficult to cut out the mature stalks from the rest. 



Quality of fiber. — White, fine, and weak. 



Quantity of fiber. — With the present wasteful method of extracting 

 fibei not more than 1.3 or 1.4 kilos is contained in every 100 kilos of 

 stalk. The reason is that during the process of separating the strips 

 from the sheaths, the strips often end a little beyond the middle of the 

 sheath. The men can never manage to pull the strip to the end, due 

 both to the weakness of the fiber and the comparative compactness of the 

 tissue cells. On this account all strippers avoid this variety. If the 

 mature stalks, after being cut, were left from five to ten days on the 

 ground, the strips could then be entirely separated, owing to the dete- 

 rioration of the tissue binding the fiber together. The only disadvantage 

 in the above method is that the strips lose their white color, and the 

 fiber becomes dull. 



BAGUISANON. 



{Baguisanon, in Davao and Cebu; Macalibre, in Iligan; Lawisid in Camigin; 

 Lawitz, in northern Mindanao; Banguisan, in Leyte; and Salawag, in Oriental 

 Negros. ) 



In general appearance, and in number and size of stalks, it resembles 

 the Sinaba to such an extent as to render a description of it a mere 

 repetition of what has been mentioned under the latter. 



In breaking of the strips during the process of separating them from 

 the sheath, as well as in the weakness of its fiber, it ranks even inferior 

 to Baguisanon Lawaan. Its fiber is, however, somewhat whiter and 

 lighter. Very rarely more than 1 kilo is contained in every 100 kilos of 

 stalk. 



