FIBER PLANTS 173 



ous other manufacturing processes a great amount of substi- 

 tution and mixing is practiced. Since sisal can usually be 

 purchased at a considerably lower price than that of Manila 

 hemp the sisal fiber is used in cordage as a substitute for Man- 

 ila hemp. 



As already indicated, the commercial production of sisal is 

 carried on chiefly in Mexico, the Bahamas, and East Africa. 

 The United States occupies a very unimportant position in the 

 production of this material. In Hawaii there are about i,6oo 

 acres devoted to sisal and an annual product of 400 tons of 

 fiber. The United States imports annually, however, 215,000 

 tons of sisal, 98 per cent, of which is obtained in Mexico. The 

 quality of the Hawaiian product is excellent. The Hawaiian 

 sisal is true sisal and is superior in value to the henequen fiber 

 imported under the name of sisal from Mexico. In Hawaii 

 also an improvement has been introduced in the way of modify- 

 ing the decorticating machines for sisal. One of these ma- 

 chines will separate 1,000 pounds of sisal per day. Sisal also 

 thrives well on the Florida Keys, but has never been produced 

 there in commercial quantities. 



MANILA HEMP 



Manila hemp, or abaca, as it is called in the Philippines, is 

 a tall species of banana with small useless fruit full of black 

 seed and with a fiber of unusual excellence in the trunk. The 

 botanical name of abaca is Musa textilis. The leaves of this 

 plant are more decidedly tufted at the apex of the trunk than 

 in the case of edible bananas. Abaca is indigenous to the 

 Philippines. 



The value of the fiber was demonstrated in 1656 by a Fran- 

 ciscan monk who devised a simple instrument which is still 

 used by the natives for decortication. Notwithstanding numer- 

 ous attempts in various tropical countries, the Philippines still 

 enjoy a monopoly in the production of Manila hemp. The rea- 



