"The opportunities for increasing the production of _abacá_ in the Philippines are almost unlimited. Enormous areas of good _abacá_ land are as yet untouched, while the greater part of land already under cultivation might yield a greatly increased product if more careful attention were given to the various details of cultivation. The introduction of irrigation will make possible the planting of _abacá_ in many districts where it is now unknown. The _perfection_ of a machine for the extraction of the fibre will increase the entire output by nearly one-third, as this amount is now lost by the wasteful hand-stripping process."
Hitherto, while numerous attempts have been made to extract the fibre with machinery, some obstacle has always prevented the general use of the process. The exports have increased with great rapidity, as shown by the following table:--
1870 31,426 tons. 1880 50,482 " 1890 67,864 " 1900 89,438 " 1904 121,637 "
In 1901 the value of the export was $14,453,410, or 62.3% of the total exports from the Philippines. The fibre is now so valuable that Manila hemp cordage is freely adulterated by manufacturers, chiefly by admixture of phormium (New Zealand flax) and Russian hemp.
MANILIUS, a Roman poet, author of a poem in five books called _Astronomica_. The author is neither quoted nor mentioned by any ancient writer. Even his name is uncertain, but it was probably Marcus Manilius; in the earlier MSS. the author is anonymous, the later give Manilius, Manlius, Mallius. The poem itself implies that the writer lived under Augustus or Tiberius, and that he was a citizen of and resident in Rome. According to R. Bentley he was an Asiatic Greek; according to F. Jacob an African. His work is one of great learning; he had studied his subject in the best writers, and generally represents the most advanced views of the ancients on astronomy (or rather astrology). He frequently imitates Lucretius, whom he resembles in earnestness and originality and in the power of enlivening the dry bones of his subject. Although his diction presents some peculiarities, the style is metrically correct. Firmicus, who wrote in the time of Constantine, exhibits so many points of resemblance with the work of Manilius that he must either have used him or have followed some work that Manilius also followed. As Firmicus says that hardly any Roman except Caesar, Cicero and Fronto had treated the subject, it is probable that he did not know the work of Manilius. The latest event referred to in the poem (i. 898) is the great defeat of Varus by Arminius in the Teutoburgiensis Saltus (A.D. 9). The fifth book was not written till the reign of Tiberius; the work appears to be incomplete, and was probably never published.