FIBER PLANTS 



141 



surface which is sloping, not horizontal, in order that 

 water shall not stand on it. The leaves are then cut off 

 the stalk. The individual leaf bases are peeled off, one 

 at a time, and the outer part of each is removed in strips. 

 It is these strips from which the fiber is extracted, while 

 the softer inner part of each leaf base is thrown away. 

 It is not desirable, even if possible, to strip the whole 

 leaf base, the inside 

 with the outside, be- 

 cause the weaker fiber 

 of the inner part will 

 make the whole product 

 weaker than it ought 

 to be. All of the parts 

 thrown away in cutting 

 the trunk and stripping 

 the fiber are valuable as 

 fertilizers. 



Stripping. Stripping 

 is almost always done 

 by pulling the strip between a fixed block and a knife 

 pressed against it by a spring. There are now several 

 machines which will strip abaca; and except on small 

 fields, stripping by hand will soon cease. It probably 

 makes no difference whether the knives used are made 

 of wood, copper, or iron, so long as they have perfectly 

 smooth edges. With a rough edge, abaca can be stripped 

 more easily, and the product is heavier; but such fiber is 

 not clean, and it will not bring a high price. The sale of 



FIG. 100. Splitting abaci, before stripping 



