d that suckers one-half meter in height mature in
about three years, while suckers one meter in height or over will
produce suitable leaves in one year or less. The most satisfactory
results are obtained by transplanting the mature plants, since leaves
are obtainable in a few months and in half a year suckers large
enough for transplanting are produced. It is stated that in setting
the plants out, the undergrowth is cleared away and the suckers are
placed in the ground about 1 1/2 meters apart. Some attention is
given to the young plants such as loosening the earth around them;
but as soon as they obtain a good foothold no cultivation is attempted.

Usually weavers own their patch of pandan from which the leaves are
obtained for making the straw. Several workers sometimes have a patch
in common and the few weavers who do not own pandans themselves must
purchase. The leaves are sold on the tree, the purchaser cutting them
off with a bolo. The price is from 20 to 30 centavos per hundred,
depending upon their size, softness, thickness, and imperfections. The
longest, thinnest, darkest green leaves, with the fewest imperfections,
are considered the best and cost the most. In Cavinti, where the leaves
are imported from Luisiana and Majayjay, the price of the best leaves
is 50 centavos per hundred. The estimates of the number of leaves
yielded by a plant in a year differ considerably. By some it is stated
that on the average one leaf is produced per month; others report
that from three to five leaves are gathered in from three to six weeks.

The thorns are removed from the edges, and the midrib is cut away,
thus reducing the leaf into two halves, each of which is again
divided. These strips are placed in the sun for half a day. The
unique process in the preparation of this pandan straw is the rolling
which occurs at this point. While it is probable that any roller with
sufficient weight could be used, that employed in the pandan districts
of Laguna is the primitive "iluhan" by which sugar-cane and copra are
also crushed. It consists essentially of three heavy wooden horses, in
the grooves of which a log, heavily weighted with stones, rotates. The
pandan lengths are placed in one of the grooves underneath the log and
so rolled. The object of the process is to make the material thinner
and more pliable. Straw is stripped from the lengths thus prepared
by the use of the gauge. [20] The straw is then further dried in the
sunshin