CHAPTER IV
ABACA
“Manila hemp,” as it is so commonly called, is not really hemp at all, but a plant closely related to the banana and so strongly resembling it that some persons are unable to tell the difference. The correct name for this is abaca (ä′-bä-cä), and it is probably the most important crop produced in the Philippine Islands. Nowhere else in the world does it grow so well, and in southern Luzon where Francisco lived, the soil is especially well suited for its cultivation.
Cutting Abaca
Francisco’s father had a good many acres devoted to it, and his crop yielded him a good income. A field is planted by setting out, at regular intervals, shoots from old plants. Three years are required for these shoots to grow to maturity, and a planter must therefore be willing and able to wait a long time before he can harvest his crop. An abaca plant grows to a height of ten feet or more, bearing long fanlike leaves that wave gracefully in the breeze and shut out the sun’s rays so completely that noontime in an abaca field is like twilight. The stem consists of crisp, juicy, green leaves rolled tightly together around a central stalk. These stems are often eight or ten inches in diameter, and it is from the tightly rolled inner leaves that the fiber which constitutes the crop is secured.
Stripping Abaca Plants
When the proper time comes, the men go out into the field with their sharp bolos (bō′-lōs̝), heavy knives much like corn knives, and cut off the abaca plants close to the ground. They tear away the leaves and the green outer part of the stem, which they leave on the ground for fertilizer. The white inner part comes from the plant in long strips and is drawn through a machine that presses out the water and pulp, leaving only the fiber, in long white strands. These are hung up in the sunshine to dry and bleach, after which they are tied into bundles and hauled in carabao carts to market. New shoots grow out from the old stalk so that a plantation constantly renews itself.