Chapter VI
Hemp and Sugar
“However, the richest products of our Philippine Islands are abaca (ab′aca) and sugar,” said the fatherly Padre next morning, when I met him under the shade of the bamboos and the madre trees.
“I am sure you do not know what abacá is,” laughed Filippa.
“I guess from its name that it may be a cousin of tobacco; it sounds like it: abacá,—tobacco.”
“Names are sometimes misleading,” replied the Padre. “The manila hemp, or abacá plant, is a nearer cousin of the banana palm. You cannot make a sail or tie up a bag of potatoes, without using our manila hemp, or abacá. It is the strongest fiber known; it does not weaken in water. The great hawsers that are used to pull the great ships, are made out of it. It all comes from the leaf of this Philippine palm.”
“Wonderful and beautiful and useful islands,” I confessed. “But how do you make a leaf into a cord, a hawser, a sail, or a bag?”
The Padre continued: “This big plant with leaves taller than a man, grows on a hill. We do not let it flower. The huge leaves are cut near the root, and new leaves grow up at once. All through the leaf run long tough ribs. We drag this over a big rough knife that is fastened in a board; and thus we scrape away the soft pulp without breaking the fiber. The wet fibers, we hang over a fence in the sun, to dry.
“Then we press the fibers all together, and ship them to you in big heavy bales, in the bottom of a ship. You weave the bales of fiber into bags, cloth, hawser ropes, canvas, tents, and cordage. We Filipinos, also, split the fiber and weave it into many kinds of cloth. Sometimes we mix silk or cotton with the abacá hemp.”
“I am sure our friend would like to learn about sugar,” remarked Fil, who had a sweet tooth for candy.