THE PHILIPPINES.

Press, Volume LV, Issue 10108, 6 August 1898, Page 2

THE PHILIPPINES.

The development of the Philippines under American rule is likely to so much more nearly affect Australasia than it has done under the Spaniards, both as a market for our meat and produce, and for our coa.l, and as a source of supply of various products to us, that this latest word on the resources of the islands, by M. W. Harrington, in the latest Scientific American to hand is of decided interest.

The great commercial products of the Philippine Archipelago are sugar, hemp, tobacco, copra, and coffee, and their importance, as articles of export, are in the order given. The production of sugar has increased rapidly. In 1871, it was no less than 100,000 tons; in 1881, 260,000 tons; in 1893, 261,686 tons- and it was then increasing at the rate of 15,000 tons per year. About one-third of the total production is from the province of Pampanga, in the central area of Luzon, and nearly north of Manila. The provinces about Manila Bay and the one north of Pampanga are also large producers. This sugar is exported from Manila, and goes chiefly to Spain and Great Britain. A better quality of sugar , but in smaller quantities, is obtained from the violetcoloured cane in the central islands of Panay and Negros. The very best comes from the province of Capiz, on the north coast of Panay. This sugar is exported from 110-Ho, and is sent chiefly to the United States. ■■••'■ The processes of manufacture are yet crude and antiquated. There are a few large plantations, and these are generally monastic. These plantations are usually leaded to Chinese half-breeds, from which better results are obtained than from Europeans. The small cultivators perform their -..wn work with hired labour, but suffer under the difficulty of not being able to manufacture economically. There is a tendency towards their absorption into larger estates, under the charge of corporations. The Manila hemp is so called because of the resemblance of the fibre to that of hemp, at least in colour. It is derived from the leaf stem of a banana plant (Musa texfcms). The plant has an inedible fruit, ana grows in poor soiL The best plants grow in southeastern Luzon and the- adjacent islands of Samar, Leyte, and Bohol. The plant is rudely cultivated, cut down when luree* years old, and the fibres separated from the surrounding tissue by rude domestic machines. It takes two natives to prepare 261b a day. ' ' - The coarser outside fibres are exported in the crude state, chiefly to Great-Britain, the United States, arid tne Australian colonies, where they are used for making a> highlyprized cordage. The finer fibres are used at Home for domestic manufactures of fabrics used for dress and ornament. They are ~guo, transparent, and v,iiy durable... -*The fabrics are varieu by using some cotton, silk," or other fibre with the Manila hemp. The native name for the fibre is abaca, token from the plant; The abaca has been introduced into other parts of the world, but the conditions of its native home of the Philippines are more favourauie, and the labour there is so cheap that no successful competition has been established. Export of abaca began in 1801, and the amount exported is steadily increasing. In 1893 it amounted to 9v,787 tons, valued at ten million dollars. ' . , Next in order of value, out first in popular estimation, is the so-called Manila tobacco. It is a> highly prized tobacco, classed by some as the equal of Havana tobacco, and by a few as its superior. Certain ±c is that some Manila leaf is imported into though it is not known how it is used. The Cuban tobacco is classified with regard to its excellence, the Manila with regard rather to its fine appearance. Manila tobacco is stronger than it looks, and it has a fine herby flavour, to which those who use it become very much attached. The tobacco was made a Monopoly of the Government in 1781 i That is, anyone could raise it, but the Government only could buy it, and could set the price and pay for it when it pleased. It often pleased to be two or three years behind in its payments. In 1882 this restriction was removed 1 , and small growers now can produce it more profitably. It is grown over Luzon and the neighbouring islands, but the very best comes from the two large provinces oi Cagayan and Isabella, in the extreme north-eastern part of the island. The. cultivation of the plant requires little labour. The man of the household usually performs the tillage, and the women and children the rest of the work. Rather less than half of the crop is sent ( out in the leaf, and this goes largely to Spain and other European countries. The remainder is made up into cigars and.cigarettes, two-thirds of which are consumed at home and the remainder exported, chiefly to the neighbouring countries of continental Asia and to Japan. In 1893 about ll;000 tons of leaf were exported and 140,000,000 of cigars. The price of "this tobacco in the Oriental countries is low. Boxes of 500 excellent cheroots (a cigar open at both ends) can be got for 18dol. , The copra is a preparation of the cocoanut made in great quantities in tropical islands all over the world. It seems to be a relatively new product' for ' the Philippines; 11,500 tons were _in 1893. The cocoa palm is very common and highly prized in the Philippines. All parts of it are used. Coffee was. introduced, in the Philippines, probably in the latter part of the eighteenth century, from Brazil. The first large plantation was established in 1826, and the production began to extend actively 15 or 20 years ago. Latterly the export has decreased very greatly. It used to average 2500 tons a year, but has recently sunk to only 300. This is probably o*ue to the revolution, for the coffee is of good quality, some of/it excellent. ■ ' " Unlike Manila hemp and tobacco, the coffee requires some capital on .the part of those who undertake it. It takes the trees four or five years to begin to bear. Those who are able'to make the necessary advances have prospered greatly,, and,. especially about Manila, have become rich. The exported coffees formerly went exclusively to France, but are now scattered well over Europe, usually through Singapore. They are of two sorts, tfie Manila and the Zamboanga. The first, is grown about Manila, chiefly to the south and east of Manila Bay. It has a small, berry, and. is more highly prised than the "other. The Zamboanga coffee is produced in the sooth, principally on Mindanao and the ; Sulu Islands. The berry of this variety is larger, but less care is used in t its preparation. It goes directly to Singapore^ Rice is Ike chief product of the Philippine Islands, but it is not exported. It is the staple food of the natives, and sometimes the supply is short. Both tije mountain and lowland rice are produced, and more than ninety varieties are known. It is easy to cultivate them, and in favourable years the yield is very generous. v ; " Maize is grown in considerable quantities, So are the sweet potato, yams, ground nuts, gourds, potatoes, peas. A little wheat is raised at high elevations. Among the fruits axe the manjjo, plantain, banana, mangoitoen, jaekfhut, median, laaxon,

and durian, the last especially in the Sulu Islands. The islands are generally mountainous, and at proper elevations the fruits of southern Europe and of Florida flourish, as the orange, citron, and sapotilla. The cotton of this archipelago is excellent, and its production makes some progress. The cacao can be successfully grown, and of good quality, but little attention is paid to it. The tea plant has been tried in botanic gardens, and is found to thrive. The islands are rich in odorous flowers, and the manufacture of essence and perfumes is increasing. Cinnamon, the pepper tree, and many other valuable plants of the Malay Peninsula and the East Indies either grow here naturally or can he easily introduced. The islands are very rich in forests, and they contain many valuable woods mostly unknown even by name in the rest of the world. There are said to be thirty-two tinctorial woods, giving the entire series of colours and shades. Among the valuable ones is the ebony, with very black and fine grained wood, of high value for furniture. The magkano of the forests of Mindanao is said to be absolutely indestructible by rot. The forests generally remain intact in the interior except for Luzon, where they have been extensively thinned out or cleared off. ' The chief domestic animal is that useful and tractable Oriental beast, the buffalo, not our bison, but the buffalo proper. He is especially useful in the simple and rude tillage still used by the natives. The horse is small, active, hardy, but rustic. He. is "derived by a mixture of Oriental and Occidental stocks. The ox, goat, and hog do well, but the sheep are inferior. The most of these animals have in places escaped Irom domestication, and large numbers of wild ones may be found, usually in herds, The native manufacturers of the Philippines are not few, and their textile fabrics are especially fine and worthy of a larger market than they have so far found. The natives make many other things, among them a coarse pottery of great utility. Valuable minerals are generally diffused through the islands, but few are yet mined profitably. Gold exists generally over the entire area, in placers and veins, but usually in-quantities which do not pay 'with the rude methods employed for ite collection. It is mined in the Carmarines Nqrte province in > south-eastern Luzon; and inT the Misamis and Surigao j placers of northern and north-eastern Mindanao, but with, small result* With the refined modern methods of collecting gold it could be profitably, obtained in. many places, and probably the prospecting has been incompletely done. There are two known coalfields, one in southern Luzon, tne other on the western, slopes of Cebu and the eastern of Negros. The first probably extends over into Samar, and has furnished good steaming coal. One bed is known to be 10 to 20 feet thick. In the other there are at least five beds of varying thickness and quality. Iron ore o- excellent quality is known in southern Luzon, especially in the Camachin Mountains, where there are now. a few small foundries. Copper ore has long been known in the province of Lepantq. It was early worked by the natives, and in 1862 a company was formed to conduct copper mining in region. It is also to be found on Masbati Island, on Panay, and in several otner places. Traces of lead and mercury are known, and also of rock oil. Sulphur is obtained on Leyte for use in the powder factory at Manila. It comes from a solfatara at Mount Manacagan.