. Elements of Philippine agriculture. Agriculture. FIBER PLANTS 141 surface which is sloping, not horizontal, in order that water shall not stand on it. The leaves are then cut off the stalk. The individual leaf bases are peeled off, one at a time, and the outer part of each is removed in strips. It is these strips from which the fiber is extracted, while the softer inner part of each leaf base is thrown away. It is not desirable, even if possible, to strip the whole leaf base, the inside with the outside, be- 'â " cause the weaker fiber of the inner part will make the whole product weake
. Elements of Philippine agriculture. Agriculture. FIBER PLANTS 141 surface which is sloping, not horizontal, in order that water shall not stand on it. The leaves are then cut off the stalk. The individual leaf bases are peeled off, one at a time, and the outer part of each is removed in strips. It is these strips from which the fiber is extracted, while the softer inner part of each leaf base is thrown away. It is not desirable, even if possible, to strip the whole leaf base, the inside with the outside, be- 'â " cause the weaker fiber of the inner part will make the whole product weaker than it ought to be. All of the part^ thrown away in cutting the trunk and stripping the fiber are valuable a> fertilizers. Stripping. Stripping is almost always done by pulling the strip between a fixed block and a knife pressed against it by a spring. There are now several machines which will strip abaca; and except on small fields, stripping by hand will soon cease. It probably makes no difference whether the knives used are made of wood, copper, or iron, so long as they have perfectly smooth edges. With a rough edge, abaca can be stripped more easily, and the product is heavier; but such fiber is not clean, and it will not bring a high price. The sale of. Fig. 100. Splitting abaca, before stripping. Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitally enhanced for readability - coloration and appearance of these illustrations may not perfectly resemble the original Copeland, Edwin Bingham, 1873- [from old catalog]. Yonkers-on-Hudson, N. Y. , and Manila, World book company
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectagriculture, bookyear
