29 



Owing to the fact that the stalks of a hill of abaca, especially young 

 hills, are crowded together and that they are, to a certain extent, tied 

 to each other by their old dry leaves, great care should be excercised in 

 felling them. If laborers are left to themselves, they will be found to 

 cut the stalks at the bottom and leave them to fall of themselves, quite 

 often bringing down with them other immature stalks. The loss, how- 

 ever, is not only the immature stalks, but the roots with all that would 

 have grown from them as well. To avert this danger special men should 

 be trained to cut down stalks and made responsible for any damage of 

 this kind. To these men should be given a long pole with a very sharp 

 knife attached to the top with which to cut off the top of the stalk, 

 as well as all leaves tying it to the other stalks. The stalk, being left 

 separate, could then be cut in the manner indicated above. 



Another grave mistake is often made in harvesting abaca. Owing to 

 some pecuniary difficulties or to ignorance, some planters overcut the 

 hills, leaving none but young shoots. This method is ruinous to the 

 abaca plant. It opens the hill too much to the sun, increases the growth 

 of weeds, shortens the life of the hill, and reduces the total output of 

 fiber. 



EXTRACTION OF FIBER. 



The extraction of fiber should commence within forty-eight hours 

 after the cutting of the stalk. If left a longer time than this, the fiber 

 is liable to become discolored and weakened, and the stalk will lose 

 some of its outer sheaths from drying or decaying. As the abaca trunk 

 is heav}' and the fiber-extracting apparatus is light and easily transported, 

 it is customary to move the latter from place to place and extract the 

 fiber near the spot where the stalk is cut. 



The trunk or stalk of al)aca ranges from 2 to T meters in length and 

 from 15 to 45 centimeters in diameter. This trunk consists of a small, 

 central fleshy core from 15 to 25 centimeters in diameter at the base to 

 about 3 centimeters at the top, around which are a number of thick 

 overlapping sheaths, each sheath being the stem or petiole of a leaf. 

 The fiber is obtained from the outer portion of these sheaths. The proc- 

 ess of fiber extraction consists of two distinct operations: First, the 

 removal of the ribbon-like strips of fibrous material from the leaf sheath, 

 and second, the separation of the individual fibers by pulling these 

 ribbons under a knife. 



The laborer, sitting on the ground with a stalk of abaca across his 

 knees, inserts under the bark of one of the leaf stems a small, sharp 

 piece of bone called a "locnit" and pulls off a fibrous strip 5 to 8 centi- 

 meters wide and as long as the stalk. One sheath will yield two to four 

 such strips. When these fiber strips have been taken off, the remaining 

 fleshy material is removed and each consecutive sheath is thus worked, 

 down to the central core of the stalk. 



