ABACA (MANILA HEMP). 



INTRODUCTION. 



The fiber produced by the plant Musa textilis is known throughout the 

 civilized world as hemp, manila, or manila hemp. This name "hemp" 

 is misleading as, properly speaking, hemp is the fiber produced by the 

 plant Cannabis saliva. The two fibers are quite different, manila hemp 

 being a structural fiber obtained from the leaf sheath while true hemp is 

 a bast fiber extracted from the inner bark of the stem. The name 

 "abaca" is used in all parts of the Philippine Archipelago to designate 

 both the plant, Musa textilis, and the fiber, manila hemp. 



Abaca enjoys the unique distinction of being strictly a Philippine 

 product. The plant has been introduced into India, Borneo, the West 

 Indies, and other parts of the tropical world, but only in the Philippine 

 Islands has the fiber been successfully produced as an article of commerce. 

 This fact has undoubtedly been of great advantage to the Philippine 

 planter. The lack of competition, however, has resulted in the contin- 

 uance of obsolete methods of cultivation and fiber extraction, better 

 suited to the eighteenth than to the twentieth century. 



The opportunities for increasing the production of abaca in the Phil- 

 ippines are almost unlimited. Enoimous areas of land suitable for 

 abacd cultivation are as yet untouched, while the greater part of the 

 land already under cultivation might yield a greatly increased product 

 if more careful attention were given to the various details of cultivation. 

 The introduction of irrigation and drainage will greatly increase the 

 output of abaca in the localities where it is under cultivation and will 

 also make possible the planting of abaca in many districts where it is 

 now unknown. The perfection of a machine for the extraction of the 

 fiber will considerably increase the entire output by saving a part of the 

 fiber that is now wasted by the hand-stripping process. 



In each successive step, from the first selection of the land to the 



final treatment of the fiber, the progressive planter should have as his 



ultimate object the production on a given area of a maximum quantity' 



of superior fiber at a minimum cost. With the industry established and 



conducted on this basis, abaca will continue to hold its place as the most 



important export product of the Islands. 



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