The scraping instrument consists of a dull knife, which is attached by a hinge to a block of wood. To this is connected a treadle worked by the foot, by whose aid the operator scrapes the fresh leaf-strips under the knife, with the degree of force that may be thought necessary. The bast is drawn along between the knife and the block, forcing out the pulp, which remains on the side of the knife, while the fibre, as it is set free, is wound by the operator round a stick of wood. Only one further process is necessary. The fibre in its fresh state is very moist, containing about fifty-six per cent. of water. To dispose of this, it is laid in the sun to dry and left for about five hours, when it is considered ready for use. All that remains to be done, then, is to prepare it for shipment, which is done by packing tightly in bales and binding with hoops of iron or rattan. The method of cleaning the bast, as described, has long been practised by the islanders. Many attempts have been made to improve upon it, but with no shining success. In fact, the various machines that have been devised for the removal of the pulp usually have done more harm than good. A machine that seeks to clean the whole length of a strip of bast at once, is sure to break the fibre, which is not strong enough to bear the strain. In the machines a cylinder takes the place of the hand and the stick of the operator, and those cylinders, whether of steel or of glass, are always found to discolor the fibre, and thus reduce its marketable value. The only machine I know of that avoids this defect is the invention of Don Abelardo Cuesta, a Spaniard, brought out in 1886. This yielded excellent results, but required so many hands to run it that it did not pay. The result is, nearly all the fibre that is shipped is cleaned by the old native hand-process. Some Facts about Hemp-growing. Hemp-growing is the least troublesome of the agricultural operations in the Philippines, and gives the best returns for the expense involved. In starting a plantation the colonist chooses forest land, clearing away the smaller growth, but leaving the large trees to shade the plants and the young shoots. Where the soil is virgin, each shoot occupies, at first, a space of ground thirty-six Spanish square feet in extent. When the original plant is felled, the suckers come up anywhere, growing spontaneously from the parent root, and yielding a much denser plantation. The abacá can be raised from seed; in which case it requires four years to flower. Planters, however, generally transplant the six-months-suckers, which, as I have said, reach maturity in three years. Maturity, for commercial purposes, signifies the flowering stage. In no case is the plant allowed to bear fruit, because fruit-bearing weakens the outer fibre.