TROPICAL SOILS — PENDLETON 449 



the northern two-thirds of the archipelago typhoons are frequent. 

 In Mindanao, by contrast, typhoons practically never occur. The 

 Philippines have many volcanoes, some of them recently active. Fer- 

 tile soils have developed from the volcanic ash. These volcanic 

 soils are outstanding in their productive capacity. The relatively 

 rough relief of the Philippines has maintained geological erosion 

 on a considerable scale ; as a result, almost no laterite has developed.^^ 

 In other words, normal erosion and good drainage have prevented 

 the development of the iron hardpan (laterite) characteristic of con- 

 siderable areas of older peneplains of India, southeast Asia, tropical 

 America, and tropical Africa. 



Unfortunately the Philippines, too, suffered from the "Iberian 

 curse." During the early years of this century, when the United 

 States of America was in control of the Philippines and had the 

 power to change conditions and to do awaj^ with the majority of 

 the evils of the imposed feudalism, the opportunity was largely 

 missed and such progress of this kind that the American Govern- 

 ment did make had been quite emasculated after 1916 by the activi- 

 ties of the Philippine Government, as Karl Pelzer has shown in 

 his chapter "Landless Filipinos." ^" 



The failure of the Americans to keep in mind the desperate situa- 

 tion of the Philippine peasants compelled the latter to try to find 

 some other solution, one of which included the activities of the 

 communist inspired and aided Hukbalahaps. 



BORNEO COMPARED WITH JAVA 



For several centuries the two islands of Borneo and Java were under 

 European control and direction. During the past century the Dutch 

 made great progress in developing tropical agriculture and applying 

 science to the development of the country. At the moment, for the pur- 

 poses of this discussion let us limit the comparisons. Borneo is an 

 island of very old rocks worn down by erosion and weathering to a 

 relatively low relief. The soils, as a whole, are typical of humid 

 tropical lowland regions," where a heavy rain forest stood on the land. 

 In places along the coast are extensive swamps. During recent decades 



*^ There is evidence tliat ancient vesicular laterite overlies extensive earthy 

 iron-ore deposits in Surigao Province, Mindanao. The laterite must have 

 been formed when the sea stand was much higher and peneplain conditions 

 prevailed. G. H. Kemmer and R. L. Pendleton, .Tourn. Amer. Soc. Agron., 

 vol. 36, p. 1025 (abstract), 1944. 



"Pioneer settlement of the Asiatic Tropics, chap. 4, Amer. Geogr. Soc. Spec. 

 Publ. 29, pp. 81-114, 1945. 



"E, C. Jul. Mohr, Soil of equatorial regions, with special reference to the 

 Netherlands East Indies, pp. 383-403. Tr. by Robert L. Pendleton, Ann Arbor, 

 Mich. 



