HARDWOOD RECORD 



19 



festly absurd. Only the good prices in Manila 

 make it possible to ship native lumber under 

 such conditions. 



A company operating on a large scale 

 should own its own means of transportation 

 from the woods to the market. One lumber 

 I'ompany which is operating more extensively 

 than any other in the islands has a fleet of 

 steamers and barges to transport the sawn 

 lumber to the markets of Cebii, Iloilo and 

 Manila. Freight from its mill in the island 

 of Negros to Manila costs them less than 

 $.j per 1,000 feet board measure. It is rea- 

 sonable to expect that lumber can be shipped 

 between most points in the islands at a cost 

 not exceeding this figure. 



Freight rates from Manila to the Pacific 

 coast amount to $7, United States currency, 

 per ton (logs), about 40 cubic feet, or $12 to 

 .$14 per thousand feet board measure. Freight 

 rates from Manila to the Atlantic coast of 

 the United States are $14 to $15, United 

 States currency, per thousand feet board 

 measure, or $8 per ton of 40 cubic feet; light- 

 weight inaterial, $5 per 40 cubic feet. 



There are no export duties on timber or on 

 the manufactured product. Logs imported 

 into the United States are admitted free. 

 The import duty at Manila on sawmill and 

 logging machinery is 5 per cent ad valorem. 



The oft-repeated saying that Filipino labor 

 i.s inefficient does not apply in the lumber 

 industry. Dollar for dollar of outlay, much 

 better results will be secureil both in the 

 woods and in the sawmill from Filipino labor 

 ihan from American labor. The Filipino has 

 a natural aptitude for running machines and 

 is easily taught. Given a good American 

 foreman it is surprising how well a Filipino 

 crew can handle a sawmill. They work for 

 small wages — $0.25 to $0.75, gold, per day — 

 and given fair treatment make fairly steady 

 and permanent workmen. 



In the thinly settled forest regions it is 

 necessary to import labor from the more 

 thickly settled districts. Yet there are tracts 

 cf commercial forest so located that there is 

 an abundant and good supply of labor avail- 

 ;ible in the regions themselves. One lumber 

 company is located in the sugar-growing dis- 

 trict of Negros where labor is abundant and 

 I heap. It has found no difficulty in securing 

 a force of several hundred men, to most of 

 v.hom it pays $0.25 per day. The laborers 

 are satisfied and work well. 



A lumberman will not find the labor prob- 

 lem a ditBcult one. He will find that he has 

 escaped many of the vexatious labor difficul- 

 ties of the United States to meet compara- 

 tively few in the Philippine Islands. Patience 

 and fairness in treating the Filipinos will 

 secure most excellent results. 



The Philippine government sells its timber 

 cheap. The government charges range from 

 $0.25 to $1.25, gold, per cubic meter, or 

 approximately $1 to $5 per 1,000 board feet. 

 One dollar per 1,000 board feet is charged 

 for lauan which sells in Manila for $35 per 

 1.000 board feet. Similar grades of Cali- 

 fornia reilwood for export are worth $20 to 



$2o in San Francisco and stumpage at present 

 can not be secured for less than $2. gold, per 

 1.000 feet. The cheap Philippine stumpage 

 is still more marked in the fine cabinet woods. 

 For narra and the other most valuable woods, 

 it is but $5, gold, per 1,000 board feet, less 

 than pine stumpage in many parts of the 

 United States. 



The lumberman, however, is not satisfied 

 alone with a satisfactory forest, cheap labor 

 and stumpage, and good transportation, but 

 probably wants to know first what the market 

 is for Philippine timber. Approximately 80,- 

 000,000 to 90,000,000 feet board measure of 

 lumber are used each year in the Philippines; 

 of this a large amount is imported, being 

 mostly Oregon pine and California redwood. 

 The imported timber is being driven out of 

 the market by the cheaper and more abundant 

 kinds of native timbers. About 5,000,000 

 board feet has recently been added to the 

 consumption of native timber by the decision 

 to use native lumber almost exclusively in 

 construction for the United States Army in 

 the Philippines. China and Australia used 

 of American pine during the past year 85,- 

 000,000 and 63,000,000 board feet, respect- 

 ively, a large part of which can be furnished 

 by the Philippine Islands when their lumber 

 has been introduced in those markets by large 

 lumber companies properly equipped and 

 capitalized. 



A market for Philippine lumber should also 

 be secured in the United States. Most 

 Philippine timbers are unexcelled for cabinet 

 work, interior finishing, etc., where beautiful 

 hardwoods capable of high polish are required. 

 Such woods are rapidly disappearing in the 

 United States. The difliculty has been that 

 there were no lumbermen in a position to 

 supply a strong demand. Consequently the 

 fine Philippine woods are still unknown in 

 the United States. 



It is very evident that a lumber company 

 properly equipped and managed and opera- 

 ting on a suitable timber tract should be able 

 to deliver many kinds of native lumber in 

 Manila at a low cost. Cheap labor and low 

 stumpage offset the increased expense of 

 machinery and management in the Philip- 

 pines. 



There should always be an opportunity for 

 small operators in supplying the local pro- 

 vincial demands, but the growth of a lumber 

 industry worthy of the islands will depend on 

 the investment of considerable capital. Such 

 lumbermen should be prepared to handle the 

 lumber in all stages from the forest to the 

 market. In this way they can compete suc- 

 cessfully, not only in the Philippines but 

 also in Chinese, Australian and even .\nicr- 

 ican markets. 



Lumbering at present is mostly carried on 

 in a crude, inefficient way by numerous small 

 cutters, tew of whom cut a significant amount. 

 There is also great waste in logging. Skid- 

 ding and hauling are done wifh carabaos, 

 which are poor draft animals for this pur- 

 pose. Several carabaos are needed to move 

 i"! ordinary log, and much of the timber is 



too large to be hauled by them. In this kind 

 of logging the requirements for cheap log- 

 ging are lacking and the output is necessarily 

 small. 



Since the American occupation, the number 

 of small sawmills has greatly increased, yet 

 a large part of the native timber used in the 

 islands is whipsawn. In all there are thirty- 

 one sawmills in the Philippines. These do 

 not manufacture more than 250,000 board 

 feet of lumber per day. Of this, 90,000 feet 

 can be cut by the five Manila mills. This 

 indicates well the condition of the lumber 

 industry at present. Extensive lumbering is 

 only beginning in the Philippine Islands. Yet 

 there are a few operations now being success- 

 fully carried on which indicate to lumbermen 

 the possibilities in the Philippine forests. 



The operations of a company in Negros 

 Occidental are more extensive than those of 

 any other company in the islands. It is 

 operating on a tract of sixty-nine square 

 miles, sixty square miles of which are covered 

 with an unusually heavy stand of timber aver- 

 aging about 32,000 board feet of merchant- 

 able lumber per acre. The mill, which has 

 recently been completed, is a modern band 

 mill of the best type with a capacity of 100,- 

 000 board feet and should manufacture at 

 least 60,000 board feet per day when a mill 

 crew has been trained. This company is able 

 to sell lauan and apitong in Manila at a 

 lower price than that prevailing for Oregon 

 pine or California redwood. Its operation is 

 an example of what can be done in the 

 Philippines by a well-equipped company oper- 

 ating with modern methods. Donkey engines 

 are employed to skid the timber to a logging 

 railroad on which the logs are hauled to the 

 mills. The company's steamers and barges 

 carry the lumber to Manila, Iloilo and Cebu. 



In pursuance of its policy to do everything 

 possible to stimulate the forest industries of 

 the Philippine Islands, the Bureau of For- 

 estry, during the past two year.s, has located 

 and roughly mapped timber tracts suitable for 

 large operations. It is now in a position to 

 give definite information regarding some such 

 tracts to .prospective lumbermen. 



In northern Negros are sixty square miles 

 of dense virgin forest, similar in species and 

 equal in yield to the forest of the Insular 

 Lumber Company, which adjoins it. This 

 firest covers the slopes of Mount Silay, rang- 

 ing in elevation from 200 to 4,000 feet above 

 the level of the sea. About forty square 

 u.'iles lay below 1,000 feet and are an excel- 

 lent lumbering proposition for a company 

 with a large capital. The new railroad in 

 Negros is planned to pass within three miles 

 of the edge of the forest. A company would 

 build its sawmill on the line of this railroad, 

 run its own logging railroad into the forest, 

 and ship its lumber to a port on the coast 

 to be loaded for Cebu, Iloilo, Manila, or 

 Hongkong and New York. On the forty 

 square miles most accessible is a total stand 

 of about 800.000,000 board feet of merchant- 

 able lumber, enough to supply a mill cutting 

 50,000 feet per day more than fifty years. 



