Description of the Abacá.
First and foremost among the useful plants of the Philippines stands
musa textilis, a species of plantain that grows wild in many of the
islands and is the source of the well-known Manila hemp, the most
valuable of all fibres for cordage. The native name for the plant is
abacá. In appearance it is not easy to distinguish it from the plant
of the same genus that yields us that useful and agreeable fruit,
the banana. The only visible difference really is that the banana
tree is taller and its leaves are of a lighter green. The most marked
distinction is in the fruit, that of the abacá being small and unfit
for eating.
Properly considered, the abacá, like all the plantains, is an herb,
not a tree; that is, it bears flowers and fruit once only, then
perishes. The root survives, however, and a new plant springs up. The
abacá attains an average height of ten feet, though it sometimes grows
much higher. Its favorite location is on hilly land, and it refuses
to grow in swampy situations. I have often found it growing wild on
mountain slopes of volcanic formation, where the little depth of soil
scarcely gave it room to root.
The value of this plant lies in its leaves, the petioles, or
leaf-stalks, containing a long and strong fibre, for which it is
widely cultivated. Little attention is given to the plant during
its three years of growth. At the end of that time it sends up a
central stem, upon which flowers appear. Now comes the work of the
cultivator. Fruit is not permitted to appear, the flower-stem being
cut away and the leaf-stalks that surround it torn into strips five
or six inches wide, their length being over six feet.
The Process of Manufacture.
Bast, the name by which these strips are known, is made up of
hemp-fibre and a soft pulpy substance enclosing it. The process
of manufacture is a very simple one,--consisting in scraping this
soft substance from the fibre. This work is done by the natives in
a primitive fashion. Nevertheless, no one, so far, has been able to
improve upon it.
The scraping instrument consists of a dull knife, which is attached by
a hinge to a block of wood. To this is connected a treadle worked by
the foot, by whose aid the operator scrapes the fresh leaf-strips under
the knife, with the degree of force that may be thought necessary. The
bast is drawn along between the knife and the block, forcing out
the pulp, which remains on the side of the knife, while the fibre,
as it is set free, is wound by the operator round a stick of wood.
Only one further process is necessary. The fibre in its fresh state is
very moist, containing about fifty-six per cent. of water. To dispose
of this, it is laid in the sun to dry and left for about five hours,
when it is considered ready for use. All that remains to be done,
then, is to prepare it for shipment, which is done by packing tightly
in bales and binding with hoops of iron or rattan.
The method of cleaning the bast, as described, has long been practised
by the islanders. Many attempts have been made to improve upon it, but
with no shining success. In fact, the various machines that have been
devised for the removal of the pulp usually have done more harm than
good. A machine that seeks to clean the whole length of a strip of
bast at once, is sure to break the fibre, which is not strong enough
to bear the strain. In the machines a cylinder takes the place of the
hand and the stick of the operator, and those cylinders, whether of
steel or of glass, are always found to discolor the fibre, and thus
reduce its marketable value. The only machine I know of that avoids
this defect is the invention of Don Abelardo Cuesta, a Spaniard,
brought out in 1886. This yielded excellent results, but required so
many hands to run it that it did not pay. The result is, nearly all
the fibre that is shipped is cleaned by the old native hand-process.
Some Facts about Hemp-growing.
Hemp-growing is the least troublesome of the agricultural operations
in the Philippines, and gives the best returns for the expense
involved. In starting a plantation the colonist chooses forest land,
clearing away the smaller growth, but leaving the large trees to
shade the plants and the young shoots. Where the soil is virgin,
each shoot occupies, at first, a space of ground thirty-six Spanish
square feet in extent. When the original plant is felled, the suckers
come up anywhere, growing spontaneously from the parent root, and
yielding a much denser plantation.
The abacá can be raised from seed; in which case it requires
four years to flower. Planters, however, generally transplant the
six-months-suckers, which, as I have said, reach maturity in three
years. Maturity, for commercial purposes, signifies the flowering
stage. In no case is the plant allowed to bear fruit, because
fruit-bearing weakens the outer fibre.
Ample capital is necessary for success in hemp-growing, inasmuch as
three years or more must pass before any profit can be had. After that,
the grower can depend upon an annual yield. But even then, when he is
the owner of a flourishing plantation, he has serious difficulties to
contend with. The amount of waste is enormous, some thirty per cent. of
the fibre being lost through carelessness and negligence. The natives
often cut the leaf-stalks before they reach maturity. In other cases,
they fail to do so till they have rotted on the plant.
Inefficiency takes still other forms, but, despite this, there is
abundant margin for gain, since no agricultural operation is conducted
with less risk. The dense protecting forest-growth shields the plants
from hurricanes, while the high land on which they grow is safe from
inundation. Fire can make no headway among their green leaves and
moist stems. Locusts will not touch the hemp plant, and beetles and
other insects harm it but little. As the crop comes to maturity at
successive periods, it can be leisurely gathered, from time to time,
the year round. No ploughing is needed, and therefore there is no
live-stock to be purchased, fed, and cared for. There is no expensive
machinery, and no highly-priced machinists needed to run it. Weeding
must be carefully attended to, but this is the work of the natives,
and is done very cheaply. The enemies of the hemp planter are an
occasional drought when his plants are in the ground, and the danger
of fire to his dried bales before they reach their destination. His
greatest annoyance must come from the steady thirty per cent. of what
seems like unnecessary waste, due to the causes stated.
Difficulties with Native Labor.
Work on an abacá estate is performed on the co-operative plan. The
laborers are paid not in money but in kind, they receiving half
the fibre they clean, while the other half goes to the owner of the
estate. The workman, however, is not required to take the fibre for
his pay, but receives, instead, its current cash value--if not cheated,
which he frequently is. The law of the Philippines, however, is cheat
for cheat, the native having become quite as tricky as his master. The
value of the fibre depends upon its whiteness and its strength, and
both are reduced by the indolence and dishonesty of the hands. My
experience with the islanders is, I admit, that they are none too fond
of work. A laborer on a hemp plantation, who finds himself pressed for
money, is likely to take some method like the following to obtain it:
he will seek an abacá plant, strip a few of its leaf-stalks, and leave
them exposed to the rain and the air. As a result, the bast grows soft
and rotten, and is more easily cleaned, but the fibre is weakened and
discolored. In cleaning it, he uses a toothed knife,--a form forbidden
by the trade, since it adds to the discoloration. As the fibre is sold
by weight, the dishonest manipulator is careful to leave some of the
pulp to dry upon it and so increase the number of pounds. Carrying
his bundle of coarse, partly-cleaned, discolored, and weak fibre, he
seeks the dealer at night, that he may be deceived as to the color of
the fibre. These tricks are well known to the planter, his manager,
and to the acopiadores, or dealers at large, and do not often succeed.
The plantation-owners make every effort to force the natives to use
knives without teeth, in order that the fibre may be fine, perfectly
clean, and white. The Filipino, though, if not closely watched,
persists in using his serrated knife, because if he uses one with a
smooth edge he loses in weight. He is too ignorant to perceive that
the fibre properly treated is of higher value. It is quite possible,
as is often claimed, that there is a difference in plants, some giving
a whiter fibre than others. But it is generally conceded that if
the natives would cut the plant only at maturity, cleanse the fibre
under a toothless knife the same day, place the strips in a clean
place, and sun-dry at once, the waste would be materially lessened,
and there would be little third-class matter.
In other words, what the hemp-planter needs are honest, reliable
hands and an efficient manager.
On some of the islands inspectors are appointed by the Governor,
whose duty it is to travel about from place to place, intimidating
hemp-laborers in the name of the law. But so far their efforts seem to
have met with but little success, the plantations owned by foreigners
being large, remote, and difficult to reach; they are, indeed, nearly
always on the sides of mountains. In the extraction of the fibre the
natives work in couples: one man strips the bast, another draws it
under the knife. A fair week's work for the two, including selection
and felling of plants, and cleansing and drying of bast, is 2-1/7
piculs--about 300 pounds. First-quality fibre brings in Manila $8.50
a picul, and third-quality $7.25; but while the former price remains
firm, the latter falls as the poor quality increases. Nevertheless,
as may be seen, the native gets good wages even for a poor quality
of hemp.
The work of the laborers is by no means confined to treating the
fibre, they being expected to devote some time every day to weeding the
plants, and clearing out brushwood. This is part of their regular work
and is not paid for extra. The baling of the fibre is done by means
of a press, at which men and boys work, their rate of payment varying
from 12-1/2 to 50 cents a day. Transportation from the plantations to
the shipping points, such as Manila and Cebú, is also to be considered
in estimating the outlay of the planter.
Tricks of the Natives.
I have not yet told all the tricks of the natives. They cheat also
in the planting, by not making deep enough holes for setting out the
shoots. In consequence, planters no longer pay at once for shoots and
labor, as formerly, but reserve payment for three years, or until full
growth is attained. Then $10 are paid for each hundred of live plants.
In addition to the large planters, many of the Filipinos produce bast
in a small way, selling it to Chinese dealers. Or a Chinaman may,
for a petty sum, gain the right to work a native plantation for a
fixed term of years. With but one thought in mind--that of immediate
gain--he strips the plants in their immature stage, producing a white
but weak fibre, and returns the plantation to its owner ruined for
the time being. The Chinese are, in consequence, held under suspicion,
and their bast is severely inspected before purchase.
In fact, the whole process of hemp-production, from the proprietor
down to the lowest laborer, seems permeated with fraud; and between
efforts to cheat on the one hand, and efforts to escape being cheated
on the other, life on a hemp plantation is not a state of beatitude.
Competition with Other Lands.
Manila hemp never fails of a market, particularly in the United
States, where it is most largely used. No other fibre known is so
valuable for cordage, and the production might be greatly increased
without overstocking the market. To the various frauds practised in
its production may be added another employed by the manufacturers of
cordage: the free adulteration of the pure Philippine fibre by the
admixture of New Zealand flax and Russian hemp.
The cultivation of the plant has been attempted outside the
Philippines, but with no satisfactory result. Abacá planting,
it is true, was tried successfully in the botanical gardens at
Saigon, Cochin China, but the experiment was abandoned, for some
reason unexplained. Abacá has also been planted in British India,
and flourished as well there as at Saigon, but the effort to produce
hemp from it failed through ignorance of the proper method of the
drawing of the fibre.
The mode of extraction tried was that practised with the ordinary
hemp of India, excepting that the stems were first passed through
a sugar-cane mill, to get rid of the sap. By this means fifty per
cent. of the whole weight was squeezed out; the stems were then
immersed in water and left to rot for ten or more days; afterward
they were washed by hand and dried in the sun. Less than two pounds
of fibre were thus gained from one hundred pounds of stems, and this
bad in color and lacking in strength.
This method is very unlike that employed in the Philippines, and the
natives of the islands need have no fear of Indian competition under
such conditions. The fibre will not bear the pressure of cylinders
without damage in color, while the soaking of the stems is sure to
weaken it. The experiments in India failed to distinguish between the
Indian hemp and Manila hemp plants, which belong to different families,
and require radically different treatment.
The islands of Leyte and Marinduque, and certain districts in the
large island of Luzon yield the finest quality of hemp. The province
of Albay, the leading hemp-district of Luzon, cannot be surpassed in
quantity and quality of yield, its annual hemp-crop averaging about
20,000 tons. Before 1825 the demand was little, and the hemp-yield
insignificant. Since then, the growing demand has greatly developed
the culture, the crop of 1840 being about 8,500 tons, in 1880 about
50,000 tons. It has been steadily on the increase.
The United States receives the greatest proportion of this product,
nearly all the remainder going to Great Britain and her Australian
colonies. Manila is the principal port of shipment: the bales are
sent thither from the plantations.
Experience of a Planter.
For those that desire statistics, I may repeat the statement made to
me in person by an Albay planter. The plantation of this gentleman,
in which he had invested a capital of $60,000, embraced 1800 acres,
planted at the time of purchase with shoots of two years' growth, and
therefore needing one year more before cutting. There was a store-house
on the estate capable of holding 5000 piculs, or 695,000 pounds of hemp
(a picul is 139 pounds). The purchase also included a bale-press and
shed, a plot prepared for sun-drying, two horses, and a vehicle.
The working expenses of this plantation, including the various items
of salaries to overseers, clerks, and storekeepers, wages to natives,
living and traveling expenses of overseer, fire insurance, office
expenses, freight to Manila, loading, commission, storage, and minor
items, were $10,000. In this were included some loss by stealing,
and several hundred dollars loss by waste.
In one year the planter received in Manila $27,000 for his dried bales
of hemp-fibre, making a net profit of thirty per cent. on invested
capital. It must be remembered, however, that in Albay province the
conditions for the investor in abacá-planting are of the best. Equal
results cannot be expected elsewhere.
What the Hemp Is Used For.
Manila hemp is principally used in the manufacture of mats, sail
cloth, and cordage. Out of the old ropes the well-known stout brown
wrapping-paper is made--the Manila paper of commerce. In Paris the
imported hemp-fibre is used in the manufacture of carpets, tapestry,
net-work, hammocks; and even in the making of bonnets.
The natives obtain small quantities of very fine hemp-fibre from
the carefully-selected edges of the petiole, or leaf-stalk, and
from this they weave an exquisite, fine, silky material, suitable
for gowns. This fibre is worth twice as much as first-class cordage
hemp. The difficulties with the weave lie in the fragility, and,
consequently, the frequent breakages of the thread; hence the expense
of the material. On one of the islands a fabric is made from fine hemp
and pine-leaf fibre. This the natives endeavor to sell to foreigners
for pure piña, which is as fine and soft as Bengal muslin. The fraud
is detected by the lack of flexibility in the material, it having a
horse-hair stiffness. Any one that has ever touched a soft, silky,
pine-leaf fibre handkerchief, for instance, would easily distinguish
the difference.
Lastly, in enumerating the valuable qualities of manila hemp, I
may state that the poorer classes of the natives of the Philippine
Islands wear clothes that they manufacture from the ordinary fibre;
and that even the bags in which the fresh coffee-beans are sent from
the islands to foreign markets are made from the same material.
I may say, in concluding this subject, that hemp is the most important
article of Philippine product, and that its production is capable of
being greatly increased. The official documents that I have examined in
Manila show that within the last decade the United States has received
fully forty per cent. of all the hemp-product of the islands. In
the ten years previous to 1898 a single firm in Boston bought 79,000
tons of hemp, paying for it an average price of 3 cents a pound in the
Manila market. During this period the total export of hemp was 914,100
tons. The import to the United States during the same time averaged
in value $2,400,000 a year. A liberal and progressive administration
will soon increase this tenfold.