17 
wo more. It will at least be sixteen months before the main 
shoot is fully matured rn ready to throw out its fruit spathe. 
This is the best time to cut it down for fibre. If so desired, 
however, it can be utilised at an earlier age, but the percentage o of 
hemp obtained is very small. This is to none extent compensated 
for by the better quality of the hemp obtained. 
Within three or four months of the first hot showing, a care- 
ful man Ld go over the entire € to edd any plants that 
have come up Gerotei instead of Lanut. The same process should 
be Fébésted later on, as several whch, looked “like true Lanut at 
first will ultimately be found to have developed into Geròtei. 
Once a stool is well established as Lanuwt it always remains 80. 
t the age of twelve months when the main stem will be nearly 
fully grown, though not fully matured, two or three others will be 
of count a size and some four or five small suckers will be 
coming on. In time the ground will be pretty well covered. As 
the older —— are Su down the young suckers grow up and take 
their place. When it has arrived at this state a Manila hemp 
pla "men requires UI: any attention as long as the workers 
o not open it "p too freely by cutting over aed stems, or allow 
the jungle plants to encroach too much. As an instan 
longevity 9 Musa textilis, I may mention one pon twenty years 
old that has not cost a cent, but has yielded stem after stem for 
treatment a frequent intervals during that period. 
d 
arks are based u n North 
Borneo. In the Philippines it would seem to take u^ there is 
not — mistake in the observation) nearly double the time to 
matur 
The “stem” of the plant is composed of overlapping layers of 
ihe leaf stalks, somewhat similar to a stick of celery, but firmly 
bound together. The fibre is found just below the surface on the 
outer side of these stalks. A stem weighs from 50 to 80 Ibs. 
No machine that I am acquainted with has yet saec Maced 
that will extract it to pay. The native method is simple and 
cheap. "The stem is cut down and each leaf Malk detuohied fron 
the others. After this the operator sits down with the end of a 
stalk in his lap, he then makes a mn incision just beneath the 
fibre at the end, and giving a smart twitch, brings away a strip or 
ribbon of the cuticle with the fibre in rm from the whole length of 
the stalk, mu in same way that the fibrous part of a 
operation is best performed on the plantation itself, as the disearded 
portions of the stem remain as manure. When a sufficient 
number of ribbons are obtained they are carried to a hut for 
oomen The appliances used for the actual extraction of the 
fibre of the most primitive and inexpensive ra 
blunt knife i is obtained à nd a hole is made i in the front end of it, 
wood, the blade of it pressing on the wood against which it is 
held by the weight of the tied-on stones. Another piece of thin 
over a bit of wood above it, to a treadle worked by the foot. All 
is now complete. The operator twists the end of one of the 
ribbons round a small piece of wood so as to get a fime hold, d x 
16573 
