The Philippines: Past and Present Volume II Part 38

The reply to the claim that Manila is far from markets and established lines of travel is simple. Look at the map and compare it with Hongkong!

Let us now consider more in detail the resources of the Philippines.

The first thing that impresses one who studies their agriculture is the extremely primitive state of development to which it has attained. Rice is the bread of the people and is produced in large quant.i.ties, but as a rule land is prepared for planting it by ploughing with what is little better than a crooked stick, which may or may not have an iron point, and by subsequent puddling with a muck rake, both instruments being drawn by carabaos. As the ground cannot be worked in this fashion until the rains come on, and the young plants should be set in the ground very shortly thereafter, the period during which the soil can be prepared is brief, and the amount brought under cultivation is correspondingly small. Rice is usually planted in seed beds and transplanted by hand, the object of this procedure being to give it a start over the weeds which would otherwise swamp it. It is a common thing to see a crowd of men, women and children setting it to the music of a small string band, with which they keep time. Organizations which have the reputation of maintaining a rapid rhythm are quite in demand because of the increased amount of rice set! Ordinarily, in the lowlands at least, comparatively little attention is paid to subsequent weeding, and when harvest time comes the crop is usually gathered by cutting off the heads one at a time. Threshing is frequently performed in the open air on a floor made of clay and carabao dung. Often the grain is trodden out under the feet of the owners themselves; sometimes it is stripped off by drawing the heads between the teeth of an instrument somewhat resembling an inverted iron rake; again it is beaten off against stones; a more advanced method is to drive horses, carabaos or cattle over the straw until the grain has been loosened from the straw. The palay [181] is usually winnowed in the wind, although crude fanning mills are sometimes employed for this purpose. The threshing takes much time, and while it is in progress great loss results from the depredations of rats and wild hogs, from unseasonable rain-storms, and from the carrying off of the grain by the threshers. A large part of the palay employed for local domestic use is husked by pounding it in wooden mortars and winnowed by tossing it in flat baskets. As a result of such methods the Philippines, which ought to export rice, are compelled to import it, the figures for the last 15 years being as follows:--

Rice Imports

Fiscal Tons Value Years (Metric)

1899 58,389 $1,939,122 1900 109,911 3,113,423 1901 178,232 5,490,958 1902 216,403 6,578,481 1903 307,191 10,061,323 1904 329,825 11,548,814 1905 255,502 7,456,738 1906 138,052 4,375,500 1907 112,749 3,662,493 1908 162,174 5,861,256 1909 137,678 4,250,223 1910 184,620 5,321,962 1911 203,083 6,560,630 1912 260,250 10,569,949 1913 179,205 7,940,857

American influence has already made itself strongly felt on the rice industry and small steel ploughs, of suitable size to be drawn by single animals, are coming into very general use. A steadily increasing amount of rice is harvested with sickles instead of with small bladed knives. Modern threshing machines are rapidly discouraging the employment of the threshing methods of biblical days, and their operation in the large rice producing regions is a good business for persons with limited capital, as the returns are immediate and the investment is small. The customary toll taken for threshing is one-eighth of the output.

While under my direction, the Bureau of Agriculture began the introduction of modern threshing machines. The amount of grain obtained from a stack of given size when thoroughly machine-threshed before there had been time for waste was so much greater than that to which the Filipinos had been accustomed that they thought that there must be a deposito of grain hidden away somewhere within the machine, and insisted on sticking their heads into it in search of this supposed source of supply!

Many small, mechanically driven hulling machines are now in use and the number of regular rice mills, with up-to-date machinery for hulling and polishing, steadily and quite rapidly increases.

The rice industry has at present two great needs: the first is irrigation, the second, careful seed selection. The average Filipino depends directly on rainfall for irrigation water, and although there may be a stream close at hand, he does not trouble to turn it on to his land unless conditions happen to be exceptionally favourable. The result is that dry years cause a very heavy, and largely avoidable, loss to the islands. A dependable supply of irrigation water would make two crops a certainty where one is now more or less of a gamble. The insular government is spending considerable sums on irrigation work, and in my opinion it offers a wide field for profitable private investment.

There are in the Philippines many different varieties of rice, each with its peculiar advantages and disadvantages. There is no possible doubt as to the opportunity which lies before the skilled plant breeder to increase the crop, and shorten the time required for its production, by the methods which have been so successfully applied to wheat and other grains.

Finally, in the highlands of Bukidnon, in Mindanao, there are immense areas which can be cultivated and planted with motor-drawn machinery. After taking off the first crop it would be readily possible to plough, harrow and seed in one operation, and here, if anywhere, modern harvesters and threshers can be employed to good advantage. In short, rice can be grown in Bukidnon as wheat is grown in the United States, and the company which goes into this business on a large scale should make money.

Abaca, commonly called Manila hemp, was for many years the most important Philippine export. The plants from which it is produced resemble bananas so closely that the uninitiated cannot distinguish them. They furnish the longest and strongest cordage fibre in the world. The Philippines have practically a monopoly on its production. Abaca culture is carried on in a very primitive way. The plants require well-drained soil and for this reason the Filipino often puts them out on steep mountain sides. The forest is felled, the timber is burned on the ground and the young plants are set before weeds have time to encroach. The bolo is usually employed for subsequent "cultivation," which consists in the occasional chopping down of weeds. Fortunately the shade in an abaca plantation is so deep that it materially impedes the growth of other plants. The fibre is obtained from the leaf petioles which make up the stem. At the present time practically all of it is stripped by hand. This is a slow and tedious process, involving very severe physical exertion to which the average Filipino is disinclined, and serious losses often result from inability to get the crop seasonably stripped. Stripping is greatly facilitated if the knife under which the fibre bands are drawn has a serrated edge, but in that case the fibre is not thoroughly cleaned, soon loses its original beautiful white colour, and diminishes in strength owing to decay of the cellular matter left attached to it.

The production of high-grade fibre or of comparatively worthless stuff is chiefly a matter of good or bad stripping.

Abaca requires evenly distributed rainfall and constant high humidity for its best development, and should not be planted in regions subject to severe drought, which greatly reduces the crop and may kill the plants outright. Experience has shown that it richly repays real cultivation.

The trunks are heavy, and water makes up a large part of their weight, but they are full of air chambers, float readily and could be rafted or sluiced to a central cleaning plant wherever conditions are favourable for so transporting them. The one great desideratum of the industry is a really good mechanical stripper which will turn out clean, high-grade fibre in large quant.i.ty at small cost. At least one machine has been brought reasonably near perfection. In my opinion all that is now necessary is to put a skilled mechanic into the field with it under service conditions, and keep him there until such minor difficulties as remain have been successfully overcome. Stripping mills could readily be established in regions like that along the lower Agusan River, where climate and soil are ideal and water transportation is always available. A reasonable number of such plants in successful operation would go far toward revolutionizing the hemp industry, the development of which is at present greatly handicapped by the production of enormous quant.i.ties of badly cleaned fibre, which does not sell readily, whereas first-cla.s.s abaca is without a rival and always sells at a high price.

The table on the opposite page shows the value and amount of hemp exports during a period of fifteen years.

Copra, or the dried meat of the coconut, has now become one of the most important exports of the islands, which lead the world in its production. The table on the opposite page shows the rapid increase in copra exports.

Hemp Exports

------------------------------++---------------------------------- || To United States, including To All Countries || Hawaii and Porto Rico -------+---------+------------++------------+--------+------------ | | Value || Percentage | | Value Fiscal | Tons | in U. S. || of Total | Tons | in U. S.

Years | | Currency || Exports | | Currency -------+---------+------------++------------+--------+------------ 1899 | 59,840 | $6,185,293 || 45.1 | 23,066 | $2,436,169 1900 | 76,709 | 11,393,883 || 52.6 | 25,764 | 3,446,141 1901 | 112,215 | 14,453,110 || 34.6 | 18,158 | 2,402,867 1902 | 109,969 | 15,841,316 || 58.3 | 45,527 | 7,261,459 1903 | 132,242 | 21,701,575 || 54.7 | 71,654 | 12,314,312 1904 | 131,818 | 21,749,960 || 58.8 | 61,887 | 10,631,591 1905 | 116,733 | 22,146,241 || 59.6 | 73,351 | 12,954,515 1906 | 112,165 | 19,446,769 || 59.5 | 62,045 | 11,168,226 1907 | 114,701 | 21,085,081 || 61.7 | 58,389 | 11,326,864 1908 | 115,829 | 17,311,808 || 52.7 | 48,814 | 7,684,000 1909 | 149,992 | 15,833,577 || 51.0 | 79,210 | 8,534,288 1910 | 170,789 | 17,404,922 || 43.6 | 99,305 | 10,399,397 1911 | 165,650 | 16,141,340 || 40.5 | 66,545 | 7,410,373 1912 | 154,047 | 16,283,510 || 32.3 | 69,574 | 7,751,489 1913 | 144,576 | 23,044,744 || 43.3 | 63,715 | 11,613,943 -------+---------+------------++------------+--------+------------

Copra Exports

------------------------------++---------------------------------- || To United States, including To All Countries || Hawaii and Porto Rico -------+---------+------------++------------+--------+------------ | | Value || Percentage | | Value Fiscal | Tons | in U. S. || of Total | Tons | in U. S.

Years | | Currency || Exports | | Currency -------+---------+------------++------------+--------+------------ 1899 | 14,047 | $656,870 || 4.7 | ---- | ---- 1900 | 37,081 | 1,690,897 || 7.8 | ---- | ---- 1901 | 52,530 | 2,648,305 || 10.0 | 103 | 4,450 1902 | 19,687 | 1,001,656 || 3.6 | ---- | ---- 1903 | 97,630 | 4,472,679 || 11.2 | 61 | 9,173 1904 | 54,133 | 2,527,019 || 7.0 | 174 | 9,231 1905 | 37,557 | 2,095,352 || 5.6 | 205 | 14,425 1906 | 66,158 | 4,043,115 || 12.3 | ---- | ---- 1907 | 49,082 | 4,053,193 || 11.8 | 1,110 | 108,086 1908 | 76,420 | 5,461,680 || 16.6 | 2,968 | 228,565 1909 | 105,565 | 6,657,740 || 21.1 | 4,714 | 287,484 1910 | 115,285 | 9,153,951 || 22.9 | 5,538 | 447,145 1911 | 115,602 | 9,899,457 || 24.9 | 12,241 | 1,030,481 1912 | 169,342 | 16,514,749 || 32.8 | 24,160 | 2,339,144 1913 | 113,055 | 11,647,898 || 21.9 | 7,460 | 720,245 -------+---------+------------++------------+--------+-----------

An extraordinary drought, which seems to have extended throughout the Far East, is largely responsible for the decrease in exports during the last fiscal year, its effect having been felt long after it had pa.s.sed.

Coconut oil is very extensively used in making high-grade soaps, and is now also employed in the manufacture of b.u.t.ter and lard subst.i.tutes. Their quality is excellent, they keep well in the tropics, and being non-animal in their nature are not open to the aesthetic or religious objections which some people entertain toward oleomargarine and true lard. Lard made from coconut oil is of course especially appreciated in Mohammedan countries. There is a steady demand for the shredded coconut used by confectioners. The press-cake which remains after the oil has been extracted is a valuable food for fattening animals. A rich, palatable and nutritious "milk," on which "cream" rises in a most appetizing manner, is made by wringing out fresh shredded coconut in water. Whether or not it can be preserved and utilized as a commercial product remains to be seen, but the experiment would be worth trying.

Thus far coconut cultivation has been conducted in a very haphazard way. In fact, the existing groves are hardly cultivated at all. Nuts or young trees are put into the ground in whatever fashion seems good to the individual planter, and are invariably set too closely. There may be a little initial cultivation, but usually nothing is done except to cut down weeds and brush with a bolo, and often even this is neglected. The trees, once established, are left to shift for themselves, and are soon contending with each other for root s.p.a.ce and air. The owner cuts notches in their bark in order to facilitate climbing. Water gathers in them and starts decay.

If under such circ.u.mstances coconut growing is so profitable that to-day plantations can hardly be bought at any price, what will happen when carefully selected seed nuts are put out at proper intervals and growing trees are given high cultivation? In considering the profits resulting from coconut culture, estimates are sometimes based on twenty nuts to the tree per year, while forty are considered a very liberal allowance. This number is even now largely exceeded throughout extensive areas in the Philippines under the unfavourable conditions above described. The effect of good cultivation can be determined, in a measure, by the condition of trees which chance to be so situated that the ground near them is kept clean. The results of fertilization can be estimated by observing the condition of trees standing near native houses. I recently endeavoured to have the nuts on a series of such trees counted from the ground. This proved impossible. In fact, it was necessary to cut out a bunch of nuts in order to make it possible for a climber to scramble over the great ma.s.ses of fruit, and get among the leaves. I therefore bought the nuts on several trees and had them thrown down. The trees were in a little Man.o.bo village, and the ground around them was cultivated. The two which seemed to be bearing most heavily could not be climbed, as bees had taken possession of them. The third best tree had three hundred ninety-seven nuts on it; the fourth only three hundred twenty-three, but its output had been reduced by tapping a number of its blossom stalks for tuba. All the nuts were very large. The meat from an average specimen was carefully dried and we found that one hundred fifty-six such nuts would make a picul of copra. A common estimate of the average number of nuts required for a picul is three hundred.

Of the whole number of nuts on these trees a few would have failed to develop, owing to lack of room, but it is fair to suppose that the first would have ripened three hundred fifty nuts and the second two hundred seventy-five. Actual observation has shown that it takes nuts two hundred thirty-eight to two hundred fifty-nine days to mature in Mindanao.

Coconut trees attain a great age, and a producing plantation in the Agusan valley would be a mine of wealth.

The time required for the trees to come into bearing varies from five to seven years with differing conditions of soil and climate, and with the alt.i.tude above sea-level. I have seen individual trees heavily loaded with nuts at four and a half years. The owner of a coconut plantation must wait for his returns, or grow something else meanwhile. Quick growing catch crops may at first be raised between the rows if soil conditions are favourable, but it must be remembered that coconut trees thrive on soil so sandy that it will produce little else of value. They require abundant water and plantations should be well open to the breeze. Such conditions are frequently found along the seash.o.r.e, which doubtless explains the belief so common among natives throughout the tropics that the coconut will not grow where it cannot "hear" or "see" the sea. The trees do equally well on open inland plains.

They have few enemies or diseases in the Philippines, the bud rot which has caused such destruction in other countries being almost unknown there. They resist wind storms admirably, and even typhoons seldom uproot them, but violent gales injure the leaves and blow down the fruits, thus temporarily checking production. While coconut growing is profitable on suitable soil throughout the islands, it can be carried on most safely to the south of the typhoon belt.

At present practically all Philippine copra is either sun-dried or smoked. The latter process hardens the outer layer of the meat before it is thoroughly dried within, and also causes the deposit of more or less creosote. The resulting product moulds and decays readily, and has given Philippine copra an evil name, but this will not seriously interfere with the sale of a good article from the islands, as its quality will be readily determinable.

Until within a very short time the crudest and most antiquated hand machinery has been used in the local manufacture of coconut oil. Soon after the American occupation a modern oil mill was established at Manila. It prospered until it burned, which it rather promptly did for the reason that it was constructed of Oregon pine, which speedily became soaked with coconut oil, and was ready to flash into flame at the touch of a lighted match or of a cigarette b.u.t.t.

A new mill of iron, steel and reenforced concrete has now been erected. It is equipped with the latest machinery and labour-saving devices, and is reported to be operating on a wide margin of profit.

The market for coconut oil seems to grow more rapidly than the supply increases. There is abundant room for more oil mills in the Philippines, especially as the machinery used in extracting coconut oil is equally well suited to the milling of castor beans, peanuts and sesamum, all of which can be produced in any desired quant.i.ty.

Modern drying apparatus is just beginning to be imported for copra making.

Sugar and tobacco are the remaining princ.i.p.al agriculture products. Both can be very advantageously grown. All that has been said relative to primitive methods in rice, hemp and coconut production can be repeated with emphasis in discussing sugar culture. The machinery and methods employed might almost be called antediluvian, and it is a wonder that sugar could ever have been produced at a profit under such conditions as have prevailed. Deep ploughing was unknown. There was not an irrigated field of cane in the islands. The most modern of the estates was equipped with a three-roll mill, and with some vacuum pans which the owner did not know how to use. The soil was never fertilized, and no sugar grower dreamed of employing a chemist. Forty to sixty per cent of the sugar in the cane was thrown out in the baga.s.se, and that extracted was full of dirt and promptly began to deliquesce.

Philippine sugar could never have competed successfully in the world's market under such conditions.

Fortunately one modern central has already been established, and several others are in process of construction. Up-to-date mills could well afford to grind cane for Filipinos, giving them outright as much sugar as they had previously been able to extract from it and making a very handsome profit out of the balance. But as yet most Filipinos have not learned the benefit of cooperation, and are too suspicious to contract their crops of cane to a mill. It follows that mill owners must control, in one way or another, land enough to produce cane sufficient to keep their mills in profitable operation. As we have seen advantage has been taken of this fact by unscrupulous sugar men in the United States who have secured legislation limiting the amount of land which corporations authorized to engage in agriculture may own, with the deliberate intention of thus crippling the sugar industry in the Philippine Islands. It is iniquitous so to handicap an important industry in a colonial dependency, and this legislation should be stricken from the statute books.

Fortunately there is no law limiting the right of individuals to contract their crops, nor is it apparent that such a law could be enacted. Furthermore, there is no law limiting the amount of land which an individual may hold, nor is it likely that any will be pa.s.sed. It would therefore seem that while vicious legislation may interfere with the rapid development of the sugar industry in the Philippines, it cannot destroy it.

The table on the opposite page shows the amount and value of sugar exports for the past fifteen years.

It is said that the tobacco which now produces the famous Sumatra wrapper originally came from the Philippines, which now have to import it. This condition of things is mainly due to lack of system and care in tobacco growing. Seed selection is almost unknown; worms are not picked; fertilization is not practiced; the system under which each labourer settles on the land, plants as much or as little as he pleases, and manages his crop in his own way, is in vogue, and it is an eloquent testimonial to the merits of soil and climate that the tobacco so grown is good for anything.

Sugar

------------------------------++----------------------------------- || To United States, including To All Countries || Hawaii and Porto Rico -------+---------+------------++------------+---------+------------ | | Value || Percentage | | Value Fiscal | Tons | in U. S. || of Total | Tons | in U. S.

Years | | Currency || Exports | | Currency -------+---------+------------++------------+---------+------------ 1899 | 57,447 | $2,333,851 || 15.9 | 2,340 | $143,500 1900 | 78,306 | 3,000,501 || 12.3 | 143 | 21,000 1901 | 56,582 | 2,293,058 || 8.6 | 2,153 | 93,472 1902 | 67,795 | 2,761,432 || 10.0 | 5,225 | 293,354 1903 | 111,647 | 3,955,828 || 9.9 | 34,433 | 1,335,826 1904 | 75,161 | 2,668,507 || 7.2 | 11,626 | 354,144 1905 | 113,640 | 4,977,026 || 13.4 | 57,859 | 2,618,487 1906 | 125,794 | 4,863,865 || 14.8 | 7,302 | 260,104 1907 | 120,289 | 3,934,460 || 11.5 | 6,610 | 234,074 1908 | 151,712 | 5,664,666 || 17.2 | 48,476 | 2,036,697 1909 | 112,380 | 4,373,338 || 14.0 | 21,285 | 881,218 1910 | 127,717 | 7,040,690 || 17.6 | 94,156 | 5,495,797 1911 | 149,376 | 8,014,360 || 20.1 | 128,926 | 7,144,755 1912 | 186,016 | 10,400,575 || 20.6 | 161,783 | 9,142,833 1913 | 212,540 | 9,491,540 || 17.8 | 83,951 | 3,989,665 -------+---------+------------++------------+---------+------------

The domestic consumption of tobacco is very large. Practically every one smokes. Exportations are increasing. The tables on pages nine hundred and nine hundred one will give an adequate conception of the recent growth of the tobacco industry.

Bananas form an important part of the food of the people, yet there is not such a thing as a real banana plantation in the islands. The average Filipino has a few plants around his house, but with many of them even this is too much trouble, and they prefer to buy the fruit at a comparatively high price in the local markets. Good bananas sell readily in Manila at half a dollar a bunch, and the best varieties bring even a higher price. The latter may be bought at ten cents a bunch in the Agusan River valley, where conditions are ideal for their successful cultivation. I recently measured a series of trunks there which ran from forty inches to four feet in circ.u.mference.