United States or Finland ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Whilst the Thetis was being sheathed, and the extensive repairs necessary to the Espérance were being carried out, the clerks and officers were at Manilla, seeing about the supply of provisions and cordage. The latter, which was made of "abaca," the fibre of a banana, vulgarly called "Manilla hemp," although recommended on account of its great elasticity, was not of much use on board ship.
"You are my daughter," laughed the señora, happily, "my white daughter. The abaca is yours coarse stuff that it is," and she reached up timidly and kissed me, first on one cheek and then on the other, the joy of giving in her dear old eyes.
Through the better preparation of the raw material in Manila by means of adequate machinery, these difficulties have been overcome; but abacá no longer has the advantage of superior cheapness, as the demand has increased much faster than the supply. During the year 1859 it was worth from £22 to £25 per ton; in 1868, £45 per ton; while Russian hemp fetched £31 per ton.
Bandala also serves for weaving purposes; and, in that portion of the Archipelago where the native abacá plantations are, the entire dress of both sexes is made of coarse guinara. Still coarser and stronger fabrics are prepared for the European market, such as crinoline and stiff muslin used by dressmakers.
The province exports about twice as much rice as it consumes; a large quantity to Albay, which, less adapted for the cultivation of rice, produces only abaca; and a fair share to North Camarines, which is very mountainous, and little fertile.
The ground is generally level, and, being irrigated by numerous rivers, is fertile, so that tobacco, cacao, sugar cane, abaca, rice, and maize are grown; besides, there is good pasturage for raising herds of cattle and horses, and gold and other mines are known. The principal industry is the manufacture of fabrics of sinamay, pina, jusi, etc., requiring over 30,000 looms.
A native lazily pounding rice in a mortar rested from his appearance of labour and watched the carriage until it became a mere speck in the distance. Two women beating clothes on the rocks of a little stream stopped their gossip to peep at us shyly from under their brown hands. Weavers of abaca left their looms and hung out of the windows to talk with their neighbours about the great event.
They succeed in reducing the harsh filaments of the palm-tree, known by the name of abaca, to such a degree of fineness, that they afterwards convert them into textures equal to the best muslins of Bengal.
Passing by many villages, whose huts were so isolated and concealed that they might remain unobserved, we arrived at five o'clock at Tagunton; from which a road, practicable for carabao carts, and used for the transport of the abacá grown in the district, leads to Goa; and here, detained by sickness, I hired a little house, in which I lay for nearly four weeks, no other remedies offering themselves to me but hunger and repose.
The land is exceedingly fertile and bears in abundance all tropical products, particularly rice, sugar, and the abaca, a variety of the banana-tree. The fibres of the abaca are employed in making the finest and most delicate fabrics, of which from three to four million dollars’ worth are exported annually.
Word Of The Day