80 PREPARATION OF PLANTAIN FIBRE. 
pulpy matter which may still adhere to the fibres. It may be 
readily separated by boiling the fibres in an alkaline ley or in 
alkaline soaps, but not in the Indian soaps made with quick- 
lime, as these are too corrosive. When the fibres have been 
thoroughly washed, they should be spread out in thin layers 
or hung up in the wind to dry. If exposed to the sun when 
in a damp state, a brownish-yellow tinge is communicated, 
which cannot be easily removed by bleaching. Exposure 
during the night to the dew bleaches them, but it is at the 
expense of part of their strength. 
If we attend only to what is essential in the above pro- 
cess, we find that all that is required is scraping or pressure to 
separate the cellular and watery from the fibrous parts. This 
is followed by careful washing, and sometimes by boiling in an 
alkaline ley, but the latter part of the process does not appear 
to be essentially necessary. 
In the West Indies, according to the complete account of 
a practical correspondent in Jamaica, as given in Simmonds’ 
‘Commercial Products of the Vegetable Kingdom,’ the fibre 
is separated, either by crushing under rollers in a mill, or by 
fermentation. If by the latter process, there is considerable 
saving in carriage, as the stems, when cut down, are heaped 
together near where they have grown, and are shaded from 
the sun by laying the leaves over them. A drainage of the 
sap takes place, which is described as having a tanning property, 
and as discolouring the pieces which lie at the bottom. But 
several weeks elapse before decomposition is complete, when 
the fibres can be easily separated from the rest of the vegetable 
mass. There is little doubt, that besides discoloration, there 
must be some weakening of the fibre by this process, as we 
know takes place in India when the stems are steeped in water 
until some decomposition takes place. 
It is usual not to cut the stems until fruit has been pro- 
duced; “for two reasons—first, that the fruit be not lost, 
and secondly, that the tree will not have arrived at its full 
growth and ordinary size, and the fibres will be too tender.” 
This is the reverse of the practice in the Philippines, where the 
stem is cut before the fruit appears, in order to ensure a better 
quality of fibre. It would be an interesting experiment for 
those favorably situated, to ascertain the mode by which the 
