8o 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



scarce since the rinderpest swept the 

 islands a few years ago. On account 

 of his aversion to the harder kinds of 

 manual labor, he prefers making a 

 Caingin in the forest to cultivating the 

 Cogan by hand, because making the 

 Caingin is somewhat easier. In the 

 second place, all the Cogan land, though 

 uncultivated, is claimed by some 

 Cacique (prominent Filipino villager) 

 or other. So that, even if a man should 

 have the energy to till it, the Cacique 

 would come along and seize the crop, 

 though he has no valid rights to the 

 land and cannot cultivate it himself. 

 The injured man is, of course, too poor 

 to take the matter into court. 



There is a law against making Cain- 

 gins, but so far the Bureau of For- 

 estry has not only not been supported 

 by the government in its attempts to 

 enforce the law, but has actually been 

 prevented from doing so. In a certain 

 case on the Island of Negros, the for- 

 ester in charge had discovered a large 

 number of Caingins and had secured 

 all the evidence necessary to convict the 

 Caciques who were back of the Caingin 

 makers. He was about to press the 

 case and secure conviction, when orders 

 came from headquarters to drop the 

 matter entirely. 



As regards the clearing up of all the 

 invalid claims of the Caciques to the 

 Cogan land, the government has done 

 absolutely nothing. 



Another phase of this difficult land 

 problem is the making of a proper sur- 

 vey of the islands. This would greatly 

 facilitate the solution of the whole 

 matter. 



It will be necessary, then, to regulate 

 the taking up of homesteads. So far. 

 homesteads have been for the most part 

 nothing but mere Caingins. 



We next come to the problem of 

 utilizing the forests. The difficulties 

 of cutting in such a way as to get a 

 second crop can be realized when it is 

 remembered that absolutely nothing is 

 known of the silvicultural requirements 

 of the species to be dealt with. Un- 

 der the circumstances, it would be ad- 

 visable for the future welfare of the 

 forests, to go slowly until more is 



known about how they should be 

 treated. Unfortunately, this is impos- 

 sible, because the bureau is under the 

 necessity of producing revenue so as to 

 justify its existence. Hence, it must 

 try to give as many concessions for 

 working the forests as it possibly can. 

 And, to make matters worse, these con- 

 cessions must be given on ruinously fa- 

 vorable terms : at extremely low stump- 

 age rates (im fortunately fixed in the 

 forest act), and for long periods of 

 years (twenty at least). Otherwise, 

 nobody will embark on such a new and 

 untried venture. 



At present, all the forests of the isl- 

 ands belong to the government, much 

 as the public domain in the west of the 

 United States. Without boundaries, 

 this makes entirely too indefinite and 

 unwieldly an area to properly manage 

 and protect. The problem, then, is how 

 to create reserves so as to concentrate 

 the work. The preliminary steps in the 

 solution of this problem involve the 

 enormous task of mapping the whole 

 islands, so as to show the amount and 

 location of bodies of commercial tim- 

 ber, the second-growth forest, the 

 Cogan (grass land), and agricultural 

 lands. Then a popular campaign will 

 have to be carried on to obtain the sup- 

 port of the commission and of the peo- 

 ple. When all this has been accom- 

 plished, the actual fixing of the bound- 

 aries of the reserves will give rise to 

 the much disputed question of agricul- 

 tural T'ersiis forest lands. Because there 

 are some fine forests on land which is 

 really fit for agriculture, but which, 

 with the present development of the 

 islands, will not be needed for settle- 

 ment for a number of years to come. 



The next problem will be to recruit 

 and train an efficient force of rangers 

 and guards to care for the forests. This 

 will be a rather difficult matter, because 

 of the dislike which the ordinary native 

 has for that kind of work. Forest work 

 is too hard for him. When he has ac- 

 quired the amount of training required 

 of a ranger, he thinks he is fitted for 

 some easier position. 



Lastly, the forest act itself will have 

 to be amended. At present it places tlie . 



