December, 1911.] 



499 



Fibres. 



It will be noted that the samples 

 manufactured by Messrs. Peirce, Leslie 

 & Co. last March gave a bigger yield of 

 oil than this, and a better poonac on 

 aualysis. (See P. C, Vol. VI., p. 122.) 



PLANTER'S PAPERS. 



V.— Hevea Rubber Wood as Fuel. 



(Prom the Planters' Chronicle, Vol. VI., 

 No. 40, October 7, 1911.) 

 Mr. H. B. Kirk, the manager of 

 Periyar Rubber Estate, has sent the fol- 

 lowing note for publication : — 



" Experiment op Burning Cut 

 Rubber Trees versus Jungle Wood.'' 



The rubber trees were cut down one 

 month ago, and with dry weather since 

 the wood is fairly dry. The jungle 

 wood is old dry wood. One yard of rub- 

 ber firewood weighed out 863 lbs. against 

 one yard of well-dried jungle wood 

 weight 721 lbs. 



"The yard of jungle wood lasted eleven 

 hours in my drier, i.e., for a whole 

 day's work, while the yard of rubber 

 fuel lasted seven hours only, and we had 

 to use rather over a third of a yard of 



this fuel extra to get through the 

 whole day's work. The temperature of 

 the drier was kept steady on both 

 days. The rubber fuel makes far more 

 flame, and in consequence burns far 

 quicker with no special extra heating 

 powers. 



" The rubber fuel is far easier to cut, 

 and this consideration would make the 

 cost of the two fuels about equal, and 

 there is no doubt that it will be advant- 

 ageous to get rid of all trees which are 

 lying about the ground after thinning 

 out is done, also it may help to solve 

 difficulties over shortage of fuel for a 

 time. 



'' During the eleven hours approxi- 

 mately 1,200 lbs. of rubber could be 

 dried, with a temperature never exceed- 

 ing 110 degrees." 



In his covering letter Mr. Kirk says, 

 "I am personally glad to have found 

 that I can get rid of all the rubber trees 

 cut out and lying about, and getting in 

 the way of tappers, &c. 



" It is much easier to cut than jungle 

 wood, and requires very little splitting 

 when stoking, I imagine that it con- 

 tains large portion of some sort of resin 

 which makes such a flame. 



FIBRES. 



HEMP HOLDS FIRST PLACE. 



Among Island Products— Has 



Greatly Increased since 

 American Occupation— Offers 

 Splendid Inducements. 



(From the Manilla Bulletin, 

 October 5, 1911.) 

 Manila hemp, known familiarly in the 

 islands as abaca, holds first place among 

 the island products and is an industry 

 that offers splendid inducements. 



The Philippines have a practical mono- 

 poly of the industry, and there is little 

 danger of over-production, as the world's 

 market seems capable of quickly absorb- 

 ing all that is produced. 



In "Reciprocity and the Philippines." 

 by Mr. Harold M. Pitt, appears an 

 article on hemp, the exports of that 

 article from the islands and the possib- 

 ilities offered in the cultivation of the 

 same. Mr. Pitt says :— 



Manila Hemp, known in the Philippine 

 Islands as abaca, is a fibre yielded by a 

 plant similar in appearance to the 

 banana. While this plant has been 



grown experimentally in many regions, 

 it does not produce a fibre of equality 

 when grown elsewhere than in the 

 Philippines, 



The first records of an export com^ 

 merce for these Islands show that hemp 

 constituted one cf the most important 

 products. In 1851 there was exported 

 12,000 metric tons of Manila Hemp, the 

 value of which is given at $1,477,999. In 

 that year it constituted over 24 per cent, 

 of the total exports. Reports every 

 year since that period indicate that it 

 has held first place among the list of the 

 Islands' products, since American occu- 

 pation its importance has increased due 

 to several facts, one being that during 

 the Insurrection here against the United 

 States forces the country was badly 

 demoralized and very little attention 

 was given to the cultivation of agricul- 

 tural products. Hemp grows with prac- 

 tically no attention when it is once 

 planted, and perpetuates itself almost 

 indefinitely. Therefore it was always 

 available, no matter how unfavourable 

 conditions might be for the production 

 of other commodities. As the different 

 ports of the Islands were opened to corn* 



