the grain of Malagquit possesses a decided glutinous quality, so that cakes and pastry may be made from the flour. There is also a difference in the keeping qualities, it being impossible to keep the pounds per acre. Lowland rice is always more Fig. 140. Preparing the land for rice in the Philippines; transplanting. ordinary kinds in storage for more than two years, while that known as Binanquero rice will keep in good condition for five years. Lowland rice is sown thickly in a carefully prepared seed-bed surrounded by a low dike to hold the water, which is immediately turned on after seeding. These seed-beds are from one-twentieth to one-thirtieth the size of the field to which this seed rice is to be transplanted. The fields are diked to retain water, the number of dikes varying according to the contour of the land. When the ground is thoroughly wet or even covered with a few inches of water, it is plowed and harrowed until it is thoroughly stirred up into a soft homogeneous porridge-like mass. The young seed rice, when about 10 inches high, is transplanted to these fields, three or four plants being thrust into the mud by hand, the sets being six to eight inches apart in continuous rows which may be nine inches apart. Fig. 140. It costs about one dollar to take up and transplant one acre. The transplanting is usually done by women and the work is carried forward very rapidly. The fields are now kept flooded until the grain is about ready for harvest, which takes place in November or December. Two crops are sometimes grown during the year, and when this system is practiced the first transplanting occurs in April and the harvest in September, the second planting in October, harvested in February. In harvesting, the heads are cut off one at a time and tied into small bundles, which are left in the field for a short time and then stacked where they are to be threshed. The threshing is done by the trampling of horses or cattle, the grain being laid in heaps over a smoothly prepared surface of ground. Sometimes the grain is trampled out by men, or it may be beaten out by striking the small sheaves over a stone or a fixed piece of bamboo. The processes of winnowing and hulling are most primitive, such as have been practiced in the East for centuries. The yield varies from 1,000 to 4,000 Abaca, or manila hemp, is the most important agricultural product of the islands from a financial standpoint, supplying, as it does, over 65 per cent of the total value of exports. One hundred and twenty-eight thousand, five hundred and sixty-four tons of the fiber, valued at $22,146,241, were exported in 1905. Of this amount, 72,196 tons Fig. 141. Native rice-mill, Philippines. were shipped to the United States, where it is used for making cordage and twine. A great deal is used locally, not alone for ropes, for the finer grades are manufactured into textiles known as sinamay and tinampipi, the latter a cloth of very delicate texture. These are used by natives for making clothing. Abaca, the native name for Musa textilis, a species of the banana family, grows wild through Fig. 142. Abaca, or manila hemp (Musa textilis). out the archipelago, being most abundant between the parallels six and fourteen north. Its profitable production is limited to those sections in which the rainfall is very evenly distributed throughout the year, even a few weeks of continuous dry weather causing serious injury to the plants. A light, loamy, well-drained soil, with a moist atmosphere and frequent heavy showers, are conditions most favorable to its full development. These conditions are found in southern Luzon, Leyte, Cebu, Samar, Mindoro, Marinduque, Panay, Negros and Mindanao, especially in the district of Davao, where, it is said, the conditions are more favorable for abaca than in any other region. Albay province, in Fig. 143. Fruit of Musa textilis. southern Luzon, famous for large exports of hemp, has an annual rainfall of nearly 120 inches, with over 200 rainy days. All the large hemp plantations in southern Luzon, called "lates," are situated on the lower slopes of old volcanoes, the soil being chiefly volcanic ash and very fertile. The foothills and lower mountain slopes, covered with a medium growth of tim ber, which affords protection against high winds, are ideal locations for abaca. There are several varieties of abaca, distinguished by slight variations in their external characters; they differ, also, in the length, quantity and character of the fiber produced, and the comparative ease with which this fiber is extracted. Samorong puti, or white abaca, is one of the best varieties, yielding an abundance of fiber of excellent quality. Yellow abaca, samorong pula, is also a heavy producer, but the fiber is less valuable. Isarog, or mountain abaca, yields a very white fiber, but it is shorter than in the yellow and white varieties. Quidit is a slender variety, producing a long but delicate fiber. An exceedingly fine fiber, used by the natives, is extracted from saba, butuhan and tindoc, varieties of true bananas. Another variety, samorong itom, is classed with the best grown in Albay. Those kinds having the stem or trunk of nearly uniform diameter throughout are the best, the fiber being of more uniform length. (See Census of the Philippine Islands, VI, p. 168.) In preparing the land for the establishment of an abaca plantation, all underbrush and trees not wanted for protection are cut away and burned when sufficiently dry. If practicable, the land is then plowed, thoroughly cleaned and staked off, the stakes being placed in rows nine feet apart each way, the stakes standing where the plants are to be set. If the plants are grown from seed, these are planted in small plots, and when three or four feet high are cut down to the ground, the bulb or crown is lifted, the lower third of the roots is cut off, and they are ready for planting in the permanent field. Seed-grown plants are ready for cutting in about five years. The common practice in establishing a new plantation is to use suckers from old plants, or sections of old bulbs left after the old stems have been cut off. Suckers cost from $10 to $15 per thousand. These suckers are set out at the points indicated by the stakes, and then sweet-potatoes are planted to keep down the weeds and furnish Fig. 144. Native hemp-stripping machine. food for the native laborers. Corn is sometimes grown for the same purpose, and this has the advantage of furnishing needed shade for the young abaca plants. When grown in this way, the abaca is ready for cutting in about two and one-half years. If conditions have been favorable, a dozen or more stalks will have sprung up from each root, Fig. 145. Primitive sugar-cane mill, Philippines. two or three of which will be mature enough for cutting at about the same time. The stalks are cut between the opening of the flowers and maturing of the fruit; if cut earlier or later, the fiber is of inferior quality. The stem or trunk of the plant is from six inches to a foot in diameter and ten to fifteen feet long. It is made up of numerous thick, overlapping leaf-stalks surrounding a slender central axis, which is the true stem of the plant. The fiber that makes the "hemp" lies in the outer part of the leaf-stalks, and is obtained by drawing the strips, into which the stalks are divided, under the edge of a bolo, which removes the pulp. The bolo is held firmly with the edge, which is often finely serrated, resting against a block of wood, and the strips are drawn under this by hand until the fiber is sufficiently cleaned. Three men can clean 50 to 75 pounds of fiber per day. The fiber is dried, made up into skeins, and carried or shipped to points where it is pressed into bales, weighing about 275 pounds each, for export. There are eighty-three baling establishments in the archipelago, sixtyseven of which are operated by hand, five by steam and eleven by hydraulic power. A native machine for stripping hemp is shown in Fig. 144. 470 by hand or animal power, and 528 by steam. (Census of the Philippine Islands, VI.) There are many hundred smaller mills, all of most simple construction and easily made on the plantation. They consist of two or three rollers of wood or stone fixed upright in a wooden frame; to one of the rollers, which have interlocking cogs, a horizontal beam is attached. Figs. 145, 146, 147. In the grinding season, a carabao is harnessed to the outer end of the beam, and this slow-moving animal furnishes the power for turning the rollers, between which the cane is crushed, one stalk at a time, and the juice extracted. With few exceptions, the equipment of all the plantations is of the crudest character, the planters rarely being able to incur the great expense of improved modern appliances and machinery. The methods of cutting and handling the cane are of the primitive nature, and consequently the results are far below what they should be, for probably there are no better sugar lands than exist in the Philippines nor a climate more congenial to the full development of the cane; especially is this true of the island of Negros. There are several varieties of cane cultivated, which are recognized chiefly by their color. Pur ple cane is almost the only variety grown in the southern islands, while the white and the green are more common in Luzon. A red and a black variety with white rings at the joints are occasionally grown, the latter chiefly as a botanical curiosity. Early in 1903, a number of the improved Hawaiian varieties were introduced by the Insular Bureau of Agriculture, and their propagation is being extended. Fig. 146. A better type of mill for grinding sugar-cane. The abaca industry is generally conducted under careless and wasteful management by most antiquated methods. By careful selection of land and the intelligent application of modern methods and machinery, there is every prospect of success. It is one of the most profitable branches of Philippine agriculture. Sugar-cane. For the year ending June, 1905, 250,542,682 pounds of sugar, valued at $4,977,026, were exported from the Philippines, nearly thirteen million pounds coming to the United States. The province of Negros Occidental furnishes three-fifths of all the sugar exported, and it is in this province that the industry is most highly developed, Pampanga, in Luzon, ranking second. There are about ten hundred sugar-mills whose output exceeds $500. Seventy-seven of these are run by water, The lands selected for the plantations are high and generally quite level, with rather moist, dark brown, loamy soil. After the soil has been thoroughly cleaned and well-worked by repeated plowings, the cane is planted, usually in November or December, and twelve or eighteen months later is ready to harvest. In most sections, the plantings have to be repeated every two or three years, but in the deep rich soils of Negros the cane lasts five to ten or even fifteen years without renewal. A Fig. 147. Stone sugar-cane mill. In Luzon, sugar is generally brought to market solidified in earthen cone-shaped vessels called pilones, each holding about one hundred pounds. In the southern islands, the granulated sugar is put into sacks, or bayones, made of the leaves of the buri palm reinforced by a covering of rattan. This is the style employed for packing all sugars designed for export. In 1893, sugar constituted 46.63 per cent of the value of all exports, since which time there has been a rapid decline, Fig. 148. Coconut trees in the Philippines. the percentage of value to the total exports in 1902 amounting to only 11.2. This has resulted from several causes, unsettled political conditions, increased cost of labor, excessively high rates of interest on loans, and especially to the great loss of working animals from disease, some plantations having lost their entire stock. Coconuts. The coconut palm is common throughout the archipelago and in many places has been systematically cultivated, especially in the provinces of La Laguna and Tayabas on the island of Luzon. Bohol, Sámar, Leyte, Negros and the provinces of Surigao and Misamis in Mindanao, are especially rich coconut regions, the more southern districts pro ducing the largest and finest nuts. No other plant in the islands yields so many useful products or enters more intimately into the domestic economy of the natives. The roots furnish a red dye; the trunk of the tree is used to support bridges and houses; the leaves make excellent thatch, and when stripped are woven into mats, baskets, and the like; sap drawn from the flower-stalk is "tuba," from which wine, vinegar, or, when distilled, brandy are made; the fibrous husk of the nuts is made into ropes or is used in calking boats; the hard shell is made into cups, ladles, spoons and other articles; the meat is used for food, either alone or mixed with rice; when ripe, the meat furnishes an oil supplying the chief illuminant of the natives everywhere in country and town, and it is also used in medicine, in cooking, and as a lubricant; the water, drawn fresh from the immature nuts, supplies a safe, cool and refreshing drink; the "milk" of the mature nuts is used in the preparation of sweetmeats and other native foods. Besides these, there are many minor uses more or less local in their application. The making of tuba and the extraction of the oil are important industries, and it is the value of the latter product that places coconuts with the four great commercial products of the islands, being exceeded only by hemp and sugar. Comparatively, very few coconuts are exported, and up to the present time the shipments of oil have been insignificant. It is the dried meat of the nut called copra or coprax, that forms the article of commerce. The amount of copra exported during the year ending June, 1905, was over 82,000,000 pounds, valued at more than $2,000,000. All other coconut products exported amounted in value to less than $10,000. Coconut fiber, or coir, which in other coconut countries is an important source of revenue, is used only locally, in ways above mentioned, the greater part being thrown away or used for fuel in making copra. Land for a coconut plantation is cleared as for other crops, the site selected being near the sea or along some watercourse. Holes are dug ten to fifteen inches deep in rows about nine yards apart each way, and into these holes the previously sprouted nuts are placed, the earth being pressed closely about them. In preparing for this planting, the nuts are selected a year in advance and placed in some shaded place on clean, mellow soil or, sometimes, they are tied in pairs and hung over bamboo poles. In two to four months germination takes place, and when the young shoots are two to three feet high the nuts are set out in the permanent plantation. It is customary to trim off the larger roots that have pushed from the germinating nut before planting them. The young plantations must be protected from the depredations of hogs and other animals and the ground kept comparatively clean. This is usually done, when the work is carried on systematically, by the cultivation of sweetpotatoes, upland rice, corn, peanuts or other small crops. Under favorable conditions, the trees will begin to bear in six or seven years and reach full maturity in about fifteen years from planting. A single tree will yield 80 to 100 nuts per year, although individual specimens may yield many more than this, sometimes running up to 250. It is a good plantation that averages 100 nuts per tree. The only implements used by the planter are a small bar, a rude spade, a short hooked knife attached to lengths of bamboo for cutting off the nuts, and the ubiquitous bolo. The nuts are gathered at intervals of three to four months, those which have ripened between each two periods being harvested. There are many small plantations of 100 to 400 trees, and a single family can easily handle 500. The working of large plantations is based on this estimate, as on a plantation of 5,000 trees provision is made for ten tenants, who, with their families, do all the work. If the ground requires tillage, one carabao to each 1,000 trees is provided. The copra is made on the place, the meat being dried either in the sun, which requires three to five days, or on gratings over a fire, the husks being used for fuel. The fire-dried copra is often more or less scorched and smoked and is inferior to the sundried, and brings fifty cents to one dollar less per picul in the markets. One thousand nuts will make about five hundred pounds of copra, which is valued at $2.50 to $3 per picul of 137.9 pounds. The cost of making 500 pounds of copra, including harvesting the nuts, is about $1.50. All the work is usually done on the share system, the tenant receiving one-third of the sales of the product. One thousand nuts will yield about twenty gallons of oil, which is worth about fifty cents a gallon at the mill. Tobacco. Tobacco is grown throughout the archipelago, but it is nearly all consumed locally, excepting in the provinces of Isabela and Cagayan in northern Luzon. These two provinces produce the finest grades and supply practically all the tobacco exported. The value of this export for the year ending June, 1904, was $2,010,587, and for the period ending June, 1905, it was $1,999,193. The lowlands bordering the river, enriched by annual overflows, are deemed the best for tobacco, and command the highest price. The uplands yield an excellent product for two or three seasons, but their fertility is quickly exhausted and, as the Filipino uses no fertilizers, they are soon abandoned. The same rudely constructed farming tools are used in the growing of tobacco as for rice and other crops. The seed-beds are first prepared sufficiently large to contain about one-half more plants than required for the plantation, and the seed, mixed with ashes or dry sand, is sown in July or August, or, for the lowlands, in September or October. In about two months the seedlings are ready for transplanting to the fields which, during this time, have been prepared by repeated plowings. One man with a carabao and native plow can break up one acre in five days. There are several varieties of tobacco in the islands, those most widely grown in the northern provinces being the Habana or Isabela and the Vizcaya. These grow to the height of five to six feet, with rather narrow leaves a yard or more in length. Early in 1903, the Insular Bureau of Agriculture made an experiment in growing Sumatra tobacco at the station in Manila. The plants were set out February 14 and the final cutting was made July 7. The rate of yield per acre was 1,470 pounds. The leaves were very thin, elastic, light-colored, with a fine silky luster, having every appearance of the finest wrappers. Cotton of the long staple variety was introduced into the islands by the Spaniards many years ago, and formerly was grown extensively in Ilocos Norte and neighboring provinces. Its cultivation is still practiced to a limited extent, the Ilocano provinces producing about 73 per cent of the quantity raised. There is some cotton grown in La Union province on the western coast and in Batangas in southern Luzon, but their combined area in this crop is only about one thousand acres. The system of cultivation and methods of handling the product are of the simplest and most primitive character. The Insular Bureau of Agriculture is directing attention to the possibilities in cottonculture under improved methods and increase of area. All the cotton grown is used by the grower or sold to the cotton-mill in Manila. A variety of agave, probably Agave vivipara, was introduced into the islands many years ago, and has been widely propagated under the name of maguey. It is grown in commercial quantities in the northwestern provinces of Luzon, the product being shipped to Manila and exported to China, Japan and Europe. The value of the exports for the year ending June, 1905, was nearly $200,000. Maguey fiber is nearly identical with sisal, and is used for similar purposes. The finer and more |