Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 67.djvu/236

230 flower stem yields an alcoholic beverage known as tuba or nipa wine. Hats, mats, rain coats, sails and various other articles are woven from the leaves.

Another member of the Palmaceæ that has a great variety of uses in the Philippines is the burri, or talipot palm. This palm grows in abundance in nearly all parts of the archipelago. It is a large ornamental tree crowned with gigantic fan-like leaves. These leaves, like those of the nipa, are composed of numerous slender leaflets. In the burri, however, all of the leaflets radiate from the end of the long stem. Preparatory to use, the leaves are gathered and dried, often for several weeks. They are then split into narrow strips and in this form are woven into hats, mats, bags, baskets, fans and other similar articles.

More than four hundred Philippine plants have been reported, the fibers of which have some local economic use. It is difficult to select from among this number the few that may be considered of first importance. The rattans (Calamus sp.,) which are found throughout the forest regions of the islands are of great value and are used for many different purposes. Malobago, or balibago (Hibiscus tiliaceus), is a valuable bast fiber obtained from a tree growing near the seacoasts. Pangdan (Pandanus sp.), the plant known in the United States as 'screw pine,' yields a fibrous leaf from which are made hats, mats and sugar-sacks. Idioc, or cabonegro (Caryota urens), is a coarse black fiber well known in the commercial world and used in the Philippines for making a coarse resistant cordage. Anabo (Abroma alata) is a strong fine bast fiber produced in all parts of the archipelago and largely used as a cordage material.

The methods now employed in the production of the leading Philippine fibers are slow, wasteful and a century behind all ideas of modern agricultural development. Certain definite lines of improvement such as the more careful selection of plant varieties, a more thorough system of cultivation, and the extraction of fiber by means of machinery are urgently needed. A development of the fiber industry along these lines, that shall result in carefully managed abacá, maguey and cotton plantations, and in the introduction and general use of fiber-extracting machines, will be a long step towards the fulfillment of the first and greatest need of the Philippine Islands, the establishment of the country on the solid basis of material prosperity.