Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 67.djvu/233

Rh encouraged, as cotton and cotton goods form one of the largest items of imports into the islands. Experiments that have been made during the past year, to say nothing of earlier efforts in the same direction, have demonstrated that a satisfactory yield of good cotton can be obtained in the Philippines. Insect enemies will have to be overcome and methods of cultivation regulated to suit an early or late rainy season, but, in general, soil and climate conditions are favorable. A great deal of interest is now being shown in regard to this subject by Filipino planters. Large quantities of seed have been distributed in the provinces, and the next year promises to show at least a beginning

towards the establishment of a Philippine cotton-growing industry.

Pineapple fiber, or piña, is of peculiar interest as furnishing the material for the beautiful and justly celebrated piña cloth. This fiber is obtained from the leaves of the same plant that produces the well-known fruit. The pineapple plant is grown quite extensively in the Philippine Islands both for its fruit and for its fiber, but when utilized as a fiber plant the undeveloped fruit is usually cut shortly after the time of flowering.

Pineapple fiber is one of the finest and strongest of all of the vegetable fibers. It is the former quality that prevents its more extensive use, as the extreme delicacy of piña makes its extraction from the leaf an extremely slow and difficult operation. A very simple and primitive method is used in the Philippines for the extraction of this