Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 67.djvu/232

226 aloe-like cluster of from twenty to forty fleshy leaves. These leaves are light green in color, bear sharp lateral teeth and a terminal spine, and are from three to five feet long. The leaf is composed of pulpy material interspersed with the vascular bundles which furnish the fiber. When the plant matures, which requires from seven to fifteen years, a central stalk, or 'pole,' grows to a height of fifteen to twenty feet. This stalk first bears flowers and afterward a large number of small bulbs. The growth of the 'pole' is followed by the death of the plant. The process of fiber extraction consists in separating the fibrovascular bundles from the pulpy portion of the leaf. Where machines are used for this work, the leaf is run under the surface of rapidly revolving wheels or rollers which scrape the pulp from the fiber. In the Philippines the fiber is extracted by the process known as 'retting.' The mature leaves are harvested and tied in bunches. These bunches are then placed in the streams and rivers, where they are allowed to remain under water for eight or ten days. This 'retting,' or rotting, results in the disintegration of the substances which surround the filaments. After the leaves have been sufficiently retted they are removed from the water, dried in the sun, and are then shaken and beaten to remove all extraneous material that may still adhere to the fiber. This retting process is slow, expensive, and gives an inferior quality of fiber. Improved fiber-extracting machinery has recently been imported into the Philippine Islands and the general use of such machinery should give a decided stimulus to the maguey industry.

Cotton has been grown in the Philippine Islands for hundreds of years. In 1601 three hundred pieces of 'Ilocos cloth' were sent from Manila to the Moluccas, and throughout the earliest Spanish records of the islands we find frequent references to cotton and cotton-growing. At one time the production of this fiber occupied a position of considerable importance and domestic cotton was an article of inter-island trade, but the importation of cheap cotton goods was followed by a decline of the local industry and it has never regained its former position. The Spanish authorities endeavored to foster the industry by means of ordinances and government regulations, but without any appreciable results. To-day we find small 'patches' of cotton scattered throughout the islands from northern Luzon to southern Mindanao. Occasional shipments of a few bales each are received every year in Manila, principally from the province of Ilocos. In many different towns and villages small quantities of cotton are collected, cleaned by-hand and woven into a coarse cloth. There is nothing in the archipelago at the present time, however, worthy of being called a cotton-growing industry.

There is every reason why the cultivation of this plant should be