[1] The sale of Alcohol was a Government monopoly until 1862. Molasses is sold by the Tinaja, an earthenware jar measuring 19 inches in height and 17½ inches at the maximum diameter; it contains 16 gantas (liquid measure) = say 11 gallons.
[2] British patents for paper-making from sugar-cane fibre were granted to Berry in 1838, Johnson in 1855, Jullion in 1855, Ruck and Touche (conjointly) in 1856, and Hook in 1857.
[3] Since about the year 1885 a weed has been observed to germinate spontaneously around the roots of the sugar-cane in the Laguna Province. The natives have given it the name of Bulaclac n͠g tubo (Sugar-cane flower). It destroys the saccharine properties of the cane. The bitter juice of this weed has been found to be a useful palliative for certain diseases.
Manila Hemp—Coffee—Tobacco
Hemp (Musa textilis)—referred to by some scientific writers as M. troglodytarum—is a wild species of the plantain (M. paradisiaca) found growing in many parts of the Philippine Islands. It so closely resembles the M. paradisiaca, which bears the well-known and agreeable fruit—the edible banana, that only connoisseurs can perceive the difference in the density of colour and size of the green leaves—those of the hemp-plant being of a somewhat darker hue, and shorter. The fibre of a number of species of Musa is used for weaving, cordage, etc., in tropical countries.
This herbaceous plant seems to thrive best on an inclined plane, for nearly all the wild hemp which I have seen has been found on mountain slopes, even far away down the ravines. Although requiring a considerable amount of moisture, hemp will not thrive in swampy land, and to attain any great height it must be well shaded by other trees more capable of bearing the sunʼs rays. A great depth of soil is not indispensable for its development, as it is to be seen flourishing in its natural state on the slopes of volcanic formation. In Albay Province it grows on the declivities of the Mayon Volcano.
The hemp-tree in the Philippines reaches an average height of 10 feet. It is an endogenous plant, the stem of which is enclosed in layers of half-round petioles. The hemp-fibre is extracted from these petioles, which, when cut down, are separated into strips, five to six inches wide, and drawn under a knife attached at one end by a hinge to a block of wood, whilst the other end is suspended to the extremity of a flexible stick. The bow tends to raise the knife, and a cord, attached to the same end of the knife, and a treadle are so arranged that by a movement of the foot the operator can bring the knife to work on the hemp petiole with the pressure he chooses. The bast is drawn through between the knife and the block, the operator twisting the fibre, at each pull, around a stick of wood or his arm, whilst the parenchymatous pulp remains on the other side of the knife. There is no use for the pulp. The knife should be without teeth or indentations, but nearly everywhere in Capis Province I have seen it with a slightly serrated edge. The fibre is then spread out to dry, and afterwards tightly packed in bales with iron or rattan hoops for shipment.
A finer fibre than the ordinary hemp is sometimes obtained in small quantities from the specially-selected edges of the petiole, and this material is used by the natives for weaving. The quantity procurable is limited, and the difficulty in obtaining it consists in the frequent breakage of the fibre whilst being drawn, due to its comparative fragility. Its commercial value is about double that of ordinary first-class cordage hemp. The stuff made from this fine fibre (in Bicol dialect, Lúpis) suits admirably for ladiesʼ dresses. Ordinary hemp fibre is used for the manufacture of coarse native stuff, known in Manila as Sinamay, much worn by the poorer classes of natives; large quantities of it come from Yloilo. In Panay Island a kind of texture called Husi is made of a mixture of fine hemp (lúpis) and pine-apple leaf fibre. Sometimes this fabric is palmed off on foreigners as pure piña stuff, but a connoisseur can easily detect the hemp filament by the touch of the material, there being in the hemp-fibre, as in horsehair, a certain amount of stiffness and a tendency to spring back which, when compressed into a ball in the hand, prevents the stuff from retaining that shape. Piña fibre is soft and yielding.
Many attempts have been made to draw the hemp fibre by machinery, but in spite of all strenuous efforts, no one has hitherto succeeded in introducing into the hemp districts a satisfactory mechanical apparatus. If the entire length of fibre in a strip of bast could bear the strain of full tension, instead of having to wind it around a cylinder (which would take the place of the operatorʼs hand and stick under the present system), then a machine could be contrived to accomplish the work. Machines with cylinders to reduce the tension have been constructed, the result being admirable so far as the extraction of the fibre is concerned, but the cylinder upon which the fibre coiled, as it came from under the knife, always discoloured the material. A trial was made with a glass cylinder, but the same inconvenience was experienced. On another occasion the cylinder was dispensed with, and a reciprocating-motion clutch drew the bast, running to and fro the whole length of the fibre frame, the fibre being gripped by a pair of steel parallel bars on its passage in one or two places, as might be necessary, to lessen the tension. These steel bars, however, always left a transversal black line on the filament, and diminished its marketable value. What is desired is a machine which could be worked by one man and turn out at least as much clean fibre as the old apparatus could with two men. Also that the whole appliance should be portable by one man.