178 



When the tree is three years old, then it is the proper time to cut 

 it down and strip it of its fibre This stripping is a most difficult and 

 important point in the production of hemp and requires great experience. 

 The native cleaner, as he is called, goes up into the hill armed with 

 his bolo and a bag of rice. He enters the plantation and glances to 

 right and left as he walks along. Experience has taught him to tell 

 at a glance if a tree has reached the age for cutting. One slash with 

 the bolo and the tree is cut down close to the roots. The first thing he 

 does is to plant a cutting or shoot in close proximity to where the tree 

 grew. This is invariably the rule, that when a tree is cut down 

 another is immediately planted in its place, so there are at all 

 times trees in different stages of development. As soon as this is done 

 he strips the plant of its leaves and commences on the long stalk eight 

 or ten feet in length. He strips off the extreme outer skin and then 

 commences the real work. In the centre of the stalk is a stout pith, 

 and around this grow alternate layers of fibre and sappy vegetable 

 matter. These layers of fibre must be carefully stripped off the stock 

 at once for fear of them rotting the fibre. The cleaner in a couple of 

 minutes has cut a small bamboo tree and made a rough bench. With 

 a bamboo strip fastened to his knife and that in turn fastened to his 

 foot, he stoops over to the ground in front and then makes a full back- 

 ward swe^p as far as his arms can reach, stripping a layer of fibre 

 which he throws off to one side. This is repeated until the fibre is all 

 taken off, and after spreading the strippings on the ground to dry in 

 the sun, he continues to repeat the work in anothei' spot wherever he 

 may find a tree in the proper state of maturity. The work of strip- 

 ping is heart-breaking and causes many a lame back ; even the native 

 who is accustomed to the work finds it no sinecure. A full tree 

 will yield about one pound of fibre and a native can clean fifty 

 pounds in a week. The length of the fibre is from six to eight feet. 



The natives are exceedingly independent and work as long as it suits 

 their convenience. When a cleaner has got what he considers enough 

 fibre cut, cleaned and dried, he ties it up and takes it down to market, 

 where he sells it to the middleman and receives in return the market 

 value of the fibre. The plantation owner receives one-half this remu- 

 neration and the native keeps the other, and this is the only time the 

 plantation owner figures in the whole transaction, i.e., when he gets 

 his half. He simply watches to see that he gets his share. 



In the hemp ports, representatives from the business houses in 

 Ldanila buy from those middlemen. They are either Spanish, Chinese 

 or native dealers, who collect the hemp and barter with the native 

 cleaners, using rice as the standard of exchange. 



GRADES. 



Ordinarily, the hemp arrives here classified according to grade by a 

 middleman, but sometimes it is sent here to be classified and the ex- 

 perienced eye of the merchant spots at once all defective or injured 

 fibre. 



The quality depends a great deal upon the original cleaner and the 

 state of the weather at the time the tree was cut. 



