Because of these facts the only way a manufacturer can be sure of sufficient fiber of the character required to insure uniform quality in each of his products is by examining and re-grading, according to his own standards, the hemp delivered to him and by combining selections of different marks in the right proportions to give the desired results. To do this successfully requires a thorough knowledge of fibers, large stocks always available and special storage facilities.
EXAMINING AND RE-GRADING MANILA FIBER
The steadily increasing demand for our products and our large scale of production warrant our buying yearly more Manila hemp than any other single manufacturer—more than many combined. Our purchases are governed, furthermore, by the knowledge gained through more than ninety years’ experience with the fiber markets and rope-making. These facts explain why we are able to secure the choicest marks so consistently and in such quantity.
We have also erected warehouses capable of holding large quantities of fiber for months at a time so that we can store such as is not necessary for our immediate wants. This helps us to take full advantage of specially favorable offerings in the fiber markets. In addition, we maintain a system of fiber examination and classification by our own experts together with warehouse records that insure each bale being put to the particular use its quality fits it for.
TRACK AND WAREHOUSE FACILITIES, PLYMOUTH CORDAGE COMPANY
The important question of quality is determined when the hemp first reaches us. The carloads of Manila from Boston, New York, Seattle and other ports are brought directly alongside our warehouses and after the hemp has all been transferred to the platforms every mark is carefully gone over. Bales are opened, the hanks laid out flat, the fiber minutely examined and each mark given our own grading. This examination is conducted purely from the manufacturing standpoint and is entirely in addition to the one made on the dock. The expert ability to judge fiber and the constant care required can be imagined from the fact that single shipments frequently contain as many as seventy-five marks.
STACKING MANILA FIBER WITH PORTABLE, COMPRESSED-AIR ENGINE