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This idea, however, under the existing circumstances, would certainly not be advantageous in the Philippines, as it does not pay to obtain bast from the genuine abacá plant as soon as it has borne fruit. The fiber of the edible banana might very well be used as material for paper-making, though obtaining it would cost more than the genuine bandala.
The web consisted of threads of the abacá, which were not spun, but tied one to another. Composed of bamboos and palm-leaves, they are not essentially different from the dwellings of poor Filipinos; and in their neighborhood were small fields planted with batata, maize, caladium and sugar-cane, and enclosed by magnificent polypody ferns.
The description shows the superior fineness of the abacá fiber, but not its greater strength. In Yucatan the fiber is known as jenequem, as indeed the plant is obtained from it. Of the latter there are seven sorts or varieties for purposes of cultivation; only two, the first and seventh, are also to be found in a wild state.
Particularly plenteous here are the fibrous plants, and abaca forms in its prepared state one of the most important exports of the islands. This is a sort of plantain from which comes the Manila hemp, as it is sometimes called, though it is a misnomer; and with us it is called simply manila, the sailors tell me. It is extensively cultivated here, and grows something like the banana.
Report of the Commissioners, Exhibition 1867, iv. 102. Abacá not readily taking tar is, consequently, only used for running, and not standing, rigging. A plant in full growth produces annually 30 cwt. bandala to the acre, whereas from an acre of flax not more than from 2 to 4 cwt. of pure flax, and from 2 to 8 cwt. seed can be obtained. As Dr.
From the convent a view is had of part of the island of Samar, the mountain forms of which appear to be a continuation of the horizontal strata. Quite recently several pontins and four schooners, laden with abacá, were captured, and the crews cruelly murdered, their bodies having been cut to pieces.
Their contrivance for capturing them, which I, however, never personally witnessed, consists of a light raft of bamboo, with a stage, on which, several feet above the water, a dog or a cat is bound. Alongside the animal is placed a strong iron hook, which is fastened to the swimming bamboo by means of fibers of abacá.
A young man wishing to marry commissions his father to treat with the father of the bride as to the price; which latterly has greatly increased; but the average is ten bolos, costing from four to six reals each, and about $12 in cash; and the acquisition of so large a sum by the sale of wax, resin, and abacá, often takes the bridegroom two years.
The serviceable hemp fiber has, up to the present time, been exclusively obtained from the southern portion of the Philippines. In Capiz, it is true, some abacá may be noticed growing, but it is of trifling value. Hitherto all attempts, strenuous though the efforts were, to acclimatize the growth of hemp in the western and northern provinces have failed.
The road connecting the two seas, laid out by an active alcalde in 1847, and maintained up to 1852, was however, at the date of my inquiry, in so bad a condition that a picul of abacá paid two reals freight for this short distance, in the dry season; and in the wet season it could not be forwarded for double the price.
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