The Inhabitants of the Philippines Part 19

The great wealth of the Archipelago is undoubtedly to be found in the development of its agriculture. Although the Central and Ilocan Mountains in Luzon and parts of Mindanao are rich in gold, it is the fertile land, the heavy rainfall and the solar heat, that must be utilized to permanently enrich the country. The land is there and the labour is there, and all that is wanting is capital, and a settled government that will make roads and bridges and keep them in repair, clear the rivers of obstructions and improve the ports, and above all, establish and maintain some tolerable courts of justice. The sun, the rain, the soil, and the hardy Philippine farmer will do the rest--a population equal to that of Java could live in affluence in the Philippines.

The agriculture of the Philippines at the time of the first arrival of the Spaniards consisted mainly in the cultivation of rice. It is to the Spaniards that the natives owe the introduction of maize, coffee, cacao, sesame, tobacco, the indigo plant, the sweet potato, and many fruits. They also imported horses, horned cattle, and sheep. But the great development of the cultivation of sugar and hemp is almost entirely due to British capital, with some a.s.sistance from Americans.

The natives probably learned from the Chinese how to terrace the hillsides and the sloping lands, and how to erect the pilapiles, or small d.y.k.es, for retaining the rain. At that time, and for centuries after, taxes were paid in paddy as they have been in j.a.pan until quite recently.

Under the heading "Tagals," a description is given of the planting of paddy, and an ill.u.s.tration shows the aspect of a newly-planted paddy-field or tubigan. Mountain rice-lands are called bacores or dalatanes. The cutting and harvesting of paddy is paid for in kind, sometimes in Camarines Sur, a third of the crop is given for getting it in, but in the province of Manila it is cultivated in equal shares to the farmer and the owner of the land.

By looking at the ill.u.s.tration it will be seen that, the fields being divided into such small patches of irregular shapes at different levels, it would be difficult, if not impossible, to use a reaping-machine. I have elsewhere given the reasons for my opinion that the cultivation of rice is the lowest use that the land and the husbandmen can be put to, and whenever the cultivation is given up, it is probably an indication that the cultivators are raising some more profitable crop, and earning money by exporting valuable produce, wherewith to import rice from countries in a lower stage of civilisation.

This is most certainly the case in the Philippines, and year by year, as the exports of hemp, sugar and tobacco have increased, the imports of rice from Saigon and Rangoon have risen correspondingly. And yet the United States' Department of Agriculture, issued in the latter part of 1899 a circular with the t.i.tle,'Plant Products of the Philippines,'

[15] which, amongst other inaccurate appreciations, says: "It seems strange that an almost exclusively agricultural country should not produce enough food for its own population, but such is at present the case with regard to the Philippines." It proceeds to say that in some years the value of rice imported into Manila from Saigon was valued at $2,000,000. But I would point out to the author of that circular that the export of the three great staples of the Philippines in those years averaged, perhaps, $30,000,000, and this, evidently, could not have been accomplished if they had cultivated their own rice.

The Spaniards sometimes raised this same groundless clamour, and, perhaps, the author of the circular took it from them; but I look upon it as a great mistake arising from insufficient knowledge of the subject. The rice imported into Manila is largely shipped to the tobacco and hemp provinces, Cagayan and Albay, where the people are exclusively employed in the cultivation and preparation of those valuable products, and are far richer, and on a higher grade of civilisation than the rice-growers of Cochin China.

In the Philippines themselves, the people of the rice-growing districts are the poorest and most backward of all.

Besides paddy, the natives cultivate the dava or mijo (Panic.u.m miliaceum), the mongo, a species of lentil (Phaseolus mungo), called in some provinces balat or balatong, for their own consumption.

When rice is dear, they mix a certain amount of maize with it, and when it is really scarce they eat the seeds of the sorghum (Holcus saccharatus) instead of it. They also make an infusion of these seeds, which is not unlike barley-water. The camote (Impomoea batata) is the princ.i.p.al food of the more uncivilised tribes.

All the natives find a great resource in the banana, which the Tagals called saguin. The following varieties are excellent: Bungulan, Lacatan, Ternate, and Tindoc.

Wheat was formerly grown in northern Luzon. The late Archbishop of Manila, Fray Pedro Payo, informed me that, when he was a parish priest years ago, he always ate bread made from Philippine flour, which he thought far better and safer than the Californian flour that had superseded it.

Tobacco is an important crop in the Philippines, and from the year 1781 was cultivated in Cagayan as a government monopoly. In the villages of that province the people were called out by beat of drum and marched to the fields under the gobernadorcillo and princ.i.p.ales, who were responsible for the careful ploughing, planting, weeding, and tending, the work being overlooked by Spanish officials. Premiums were paid to these and to the gobernadorcillos, and fines or floggings were administered in default. The native officials carried canes, which they freely applied to those who shirked their work.

In another part of the book I have referred to the series of abuses committed under the monopoly: how the wretched cultivators had to bribe the officials in charge of the scales to allow them the true weight, and the one who cla.s.sified the leaves, so that he should not reject them as rubbish and order them to be destroyed; in fact, they had to tip every official in whose power it was to do them any injustice. Finally, they received orders on the treasury for the value of their tobacco, which were not paid for months, or, perhaps, for years. They sometimes had to sell their orders for 50 percent of the face value, or even less.

However, even the Spanish official conscience can be aroused, and at the end of 1882 the monopoly was abolished.

Here it is only right to honourably mention a Spanish gentleman to whom the natives of the Cagayan Valley in a great measure owe their freedom. Don Jose Jimenez Agius was Intendente General de Hacienda, and he laboured for years to bring about this reform, impressed with the cruelty and injustice of this worst form of slavery. The Cagayanes were prohibited from growing rice, but were allowed as an indulgence to plant a row or two of maize around their carefully tilled tobacco-fields.

Possibly this circ.u.mstance has led the author of the circular I have before quoted to make the extraordinary statement: "Tobacco, as a cultivated crop, is generally grown in the same field as maize." Does he think it grows wild anywhere?

In 1883, the "Compania General de Tabacos de Filipinas" was established in the islands, the capital being raised in Paris and Barcelona.

This Company has been under very capable management; the technical department being overlooked by M. Armand Villemer, a French engineer of great ability and experience. The Company has done a great deal to improve the cultivation of the plant and the preparation of the leaf. They run light draught paddle-steamers and barges on the Cagayan River, and sea-going screw-steamers from Aparri to Manila.

Their estates are mentioned under the heading "Cagayanes."

Besides the Cagayan Valley, the following Provinces produce tobacco in considerable quant.i.ties.

In Luzon, the Ilocos North and South, Abra, Union, Nueva Ecija. Also Masbate, Ticao, and most of the Visayas Islands. The Igorrote also raise a considerable quant.i.ty.

The quant.i.ty of tobacco and cigars exported since 1888 is given in the Appendix; and, seeing the enormous extent of land still available in the Cagayan Valley, there can be no doubt that the production can be very largely increased as the demand grows.

The export of leaf tobacco from Manila, the only shipping port, has increased from 204,592 quintals in 1888, to 287,161 quintals in 1897, and during the same period the export of cigars has increased from 109,109 mil to 171,410 mil.

The cultivation of the Musa textilis is almost a monopoly of the Philippines, and, indeed, of certain parts of them.

Volcanic soil, a certain elevation above the sea, and exposure to the breezes of the Pacific, a bright sun and an ample rainfall, seem necessary to the production of a fine quality of this fibre.

Several attempts have been made to produce this fibre elsewhere; the Government of British India sent a gentleman to Manila to study the question. He wrote a report, but I have never heard that any abaca was produced.

The plant was said to grow wild all along the Sarawak rivers; but here again some mistake must have been made, for nothing seems to have come of it.

There is, in fact, nothing so far to compete with it, and there is an immense and growing market. The price has lately fluctuated enormously, and I do not intend to prophesy what profits might be made in planting it.

In 1897, no less than 915,338 bales were exported, about 114,400 tons, and if we take the average price at that time as $15 per bale, we get a sum of over $13,730,000 as the value of that year's export, the largest in quant.i.ty, but not in value.

The export of hemp has been almost entirely developed by British and American enterprise, and dates from very recent times.

The spread of the sugar-cane cultivation in the Philippines from the year 1870 was rapid, and is in great measure due to the advances made by British and American houses to the planters. It was for many years a most profitable business, and this is proved by the large and handsome houses of the planters in the towns of the sugar districts. The continual increase of the beet sugar production, however brought down prices to such an extent as to reduce the profits below the heavy interest paid on loans or advances. But it seems now that bottom has been reached, and that rising prices and more economical methods of financing and of manufacturing will give the planters a fresh start. Those who know what has been and is being done by central sugar factories in Cuba, will not doubt the possibility of doing better in the Philippines, where labour is cheaper and is on the spot.

Under the headings Pampangos, Pangasinanes, and Visayas, will be found many interesting particulars of the working of sugar plantations in these provinces.

In 1893, the export of sugar amounted to 260,000 tons; since then it has declined, but in 1897 it still amounted to close on 200,000 tons.

The export of coffee has almost entirely ceased, and the cause is ascribed to the ravages of an insect which destroys the bushes. Lipa, in Batangas province, was the great coffee centre, and became one of the richest towns in Luzon. Notwithstanding this prosperity, the plantations were never cultivated with proper care. Weeding was much neglected. In 1888, the export reached 107,236 piculs, but in 1897 it had fallen to 2111 piculs.

There is an opening for coffee-planting on many of the elevated plateaux of the islands, and capital with skill ought to find its reward.

The Moros of Lake Lanao export a certain quant.i.ty of coffee of indifferent appearance but excellent flavour.

Cacao grows well in many parts of the Archipelago, but I have never seen any large plantations of it. A few trees may be seen in the gardens of old houses, but they must be protected from insects and rats, and require looking after.

The quant.i.ty raised in the islands is not sufficient to supply the home demand, so that cacao beans are imported from Venezuela and chocolate from Spain.

It is a risky business to plant cacao in the northern Philippines; the trees are delicate and suffer from the typhoons. And the produce is so valuable that, unless watched at night or protected in some way, the cones may when nearly ripe be carried away by thieves.

In Palawan, where the typhoons do not ravage, I have seen cacao trees 30 feet high, with an abundant crop.

The plant from which indigo is elaborated was cultivated in former years to a considerable extent in some provinces, notably the Ilocos, but the export trade was destroyed by the adulterations of the Chinese.

In 1895, 6672 quintals were exported from Manila, but only 462 quintals in 1896. Ten specimens of Ilocos indigo were shown at the Madrid Exhibition of 1887, and the price varied from $12 to $67 per quintal.

For home use the dye is sold in a liquid form, contained in large earthen jars called tinajas. It is known as Tintarron.

Sesame and other oil-giving seeds are cultivated to a small extent in several provinces, but neither the seed nor the oil figure in the list of exports.

The cocoa-nut palm grows in most of the lowlands of the Philippines, except in the North of Luzon. In suitable soil it grows to the very edge of the sea, as in the Cuyos Islands, In the provinces of Laguna and Tayabas there are large numbers of these trees and a lively business is carried on in making oil from nuts or in sending them to Manila for the market or for shipment.

When large quant.i.ties are to be sent, they are formed into rafts in a very ingenious manner, each nut being attached by a strip of its own fibre without any rope being required.

These rafts are sometimes a hundred feet long and ten or twelve feet wide, and are navigated across the lake and down the Pasig. Finally they are brought alongside a steamer, the nuts are cut adrift and thrown into the hold through the cargo ports.

The nuts that are to be used for making oil are stripped of their husks and cut in halves. They then pa.s.s to a workman who is provided with an apparatus called a Cutcuran. This is mounted upon a trestle and consists of a revolving shaft of hard polished wood, carrying on its overhanging end an iron disc about three inches in diameter having teeth like the rowel of a spur.