Evening Republican, Volume 23, Number 179, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 July 1920 — Cloth From the Pineapple. [ARTICLE]

Cloth From the Pineapple.

. H>e pineapple, naturally, gets Its chief notoriety from its excellent fruit, but there Is another use widely known in the Philippine islands and ■ torrid lands. The same species, or perhaps a near ally, can be so grown as tp produce leaves eight feet long and containing a fiber of such strength and beauty that its cultivation has long formed an Important industry in these countries. „ 1 But no machine has yet been found by which the fibers can be cheaply extracted. The outer skin is remarkably tough and a force strong enough to crush it spoils the fiber, so It has to be peeled off with a knife and the fibers pulled out by hand. This is a long process, and, however cheap labor is, the fiber is still expensive. But it is greatly prized for making cloth, because of its silky luster. Europeans visiting the Philippine islands often bring back, as a souvenir, a piece of this “pina cloth,” so greatly prized by the Filipinos.