Chapter VI: Hemp and Sugar

"However, the richest products of our Philippine Islands are abaca (ab'aca) and sugar," said the fatherly Padre next morning, when I met him under the shade of the bamboos and the madre trees.

"I am sure you do not know what abaca is," laughed Filippa.

"I guess from its name that it may be a cousin of tobacco; it sounds like it: abaca,--tobacco."

"Names are sometimes misleading," replied the Padre. "The manila hemp, or abaca plant, is a nearer cousin of the banana palm. You cannot make a sail or tie up a bag of potatoes, without using our manila hemp, or abaca. It is the strongest fiber known; it does not weaken in water. The great hawsers that are used to pull the great ships, are made out of it. It all comes from the leaf of this Philippine palm."

"Wonderful and beautiful and useful islands," I confessed. "But how do you make a leaf into a cord, a hawser, a sail, or a bag?"

The Padre continued: "This big plant with leaves taller than a man, grows on a hill. We do not let it flower. The huge leaves are cut near the root, and new leaves grow up at once. All through the leaf run long tough ribs. We drag this over a big rough knife that is fastened in a board; and thus we scrape away the soft pulp without breaking the fiber. The wet fibers, we hang over a fence in the sun, to dry.

"Then we press the fibers all together, and ship them to you in big heavy bales, in the bottom of a ship. You weave the bales of fiber into bags, cloth, hawser ropes, canvas, tents, and cordage. We Filipinos, also, split the fiber and weave it into many kinds of cloth. Sometimes we mix silk or cotton with the abaca hemp."

"I am sure our friend would like to learn about sugar," remarked Fil, who had a sweet tooth for candy.

Fil's father took up this part of the story, and said:

"Sugar of course comes from a sweet cane, which is grown on high land. The cane is cut down. A pony or a water buffalo is harnessed to a roller. We feed the ripened cane into the rollers. As the animal drives this roller around, the sugar cane is pressed through. The sweet juice is caught and put into kettles. This juice is heated several times, and stirred, and purified by bone charcoal. The white crystals separate from the dark molasses sirup. We sometimes feed the molasses to cattle and pigs, to make them fat for market."

Fil's eyes looked very longingly as he listened to this tale of good things; so I passed him a penny or two.

"Is not sugar made also from very sweet, dark beets?" I inquired.

"Not in these islands," replied the Padre. "We find that the sugar cane gives a sweeter and a more nutritious product. The beet sugar is made in Europe and in the western states of America."

"What do you do with the pressed sugar cane?" I inquired.

"We spread it out in the sun and dry it in large yards. It still contains much sugar. We use it for fuel, to light the fires under the kettles."

"What a waste!" I exclaimed. "You should use oil or gas for fuel, and should press every drop of sugar out of that valuable cane. Waste not; want not, is as good a maxim for a nation as for a boy."

"If you are always that serious, like a lecturer, the children may not like you so well," remarked the gentle Padre.

"Not at all," replied Fil and Moro and Filippa and Favra, who perhaps remembered the pennies I had given to them. Then I hummed as we went home to have lunch, or "tiffin," as they call it:

"All lectures and no candy or fun
Make Moro and Fil dull boys."