MANILA HEMP, or ABACA, Musa it's' tills. This species belongs to the or banana family, the commercial fibre being rived from the stalk or trunk of the wild tain of the Philippine Islands, and is classed as a structural fibre. The strongest and best of our hard cordage fibres, it is employed in the, United States for standard binder twine and for all sizes of rope from the smallest dirnell; sions to hawsers and cables. The old rope and the waste are employed as paper stock. The fibre is creamy white to reddish white, lustrous ca.sily separated, stiff and resistant, while its meat in cordage for the rigging and running ropes of ships. Structurally the bundles of fibres are very large, but easily separated into fibres of even diameter; the walls of the cells arc of uniform thickness, growing slender to ward the ends gradually and regularly. In breakage tests for textile strength, with Eng lish hemp — made by the British government - Manila stood a strain of 4,669 pounds 'against 3,885 pounds for hemp, ropes three • and one quarter inches in circumference and two fathoms long being used in each test. In the Philippine Islands the finer grades of the fibre are extensively used for fabric manufacturer the product being worn by the natives of both sexes throughout the archipelago. Mixed •with cotton a durable fabric is produced well adapted the climatic conditions of the islands. According to a recent report of the Philippine Bureau of Agriculture, the manila hemp plant was intro• duced into India in 1859 and the •Andaman Islands in 1873. The plant is also said to be found in Borneo and Java, and attempts have been made to introduce it into other remains a fact, however, that the commercial fibre is produced only in the Philippines, The culture has been attempted without success in the West Indies, and seed was imported for trial in Florida only a few years ago; it was planted but it failed to germinate. Several same; of banana yielding fair fibre are successfully culti vated throughout tropical and sub-tropical America, and in many other portions of the world. Banana fibre bears no comparison, how ever, with the Manila hemp of commerce, al though the fibre of Musa basjos is produced commercially in Japan where it is employed fOr undergarments for summer wear, as well as for light dresses for the higher classes of Japanese.
Manila hemp first attracted attention corn, mercially early in the last century, and was im ported Into Salem, and Boston, Mass., about 1824; samples of the fibre, however, were brought to this country by naval officers as early as 1820. The production of the textile had reached about 8,000 tons in 1840, 30,000 tons in 1860 and 50,000 tons in 1880. In 1900 the production was nearly 90,000 tons, and at the present time (1918) is in excess of 130,000 ions. The United States in 1916 took 19,000 tons of the value of $14,067,000, and the total export was $24,974,000, or 40 per cent of the total Philippine exports.
Regarding the specific localities of produc tion and details of cultivation, preparation, etc., the student is referred to Bulletin of the Royat Gardens Kew (August 1894), to a: DeicciPtive Catalogue of Useful Fibre Plants of the World (Washington 1897), and to the latest issues of the Farmer's Bulletin published 'by the pine Bureau of Agriculture, Manila.
The extraction of the fibre is a simple propo sition. The oboe° is cut near the Riots when the plant is two to four years old and just be fore blossoming; if cut earlier the fibre is finer but shorter. After striking off. the leaves the. trunk or stem is slit from end to end, and the sheathing layers of cellular matter, which form the petioles of the leaves, are separated, dried a day or two and then cut into strips three inches wide, and finally scraped until the fibre has been cleaned of all extraneous matters, soft cellular tissue, etc, The bundles of wet fibre are shaken into filaments, washed, dried and sorted. This is the export fibre for cordage purposes, the fabric fibre necessitating further treatment by beating, which softens and subdivides the fila ments. The expcirt fibre is wrought into hanks and made into bales of about 270 pounds, when it is ready for shipment. Attempts to use ma chinery for extracting the fibre have not been successful, partly because the machines have not been adequate. and partly on account of native pfejudice. There is a• great waste by the hand methods of preparation which it is thought ma chine extension would obviate. See FIBRE;