162 PHILIPPINE PALMS 
cut into proper lengths and then attached by their sides to 
form an oblong mat or screen that can readily be rolled up. 
Buffers of rattan are made in Cavite in enormous numbers by 
the United States Navy. 
The rattan strips, so familiar as the “cane” in certain types 
of chairs, are the most important product of this genus in the 
Philippines. They are locally utilized for all purposes for which 
rope or cord may be used. Most of the houses in the Archipelago 
are of light construction, framed wholly or in part with bam- 
boo and thatched with palm leaves or grass. The frames of 
these houses are usually tied together with strips of rattan. 
Commercially, large quantities of it are used in baling tobacco, 
abaka (Manila hemp), etc., and for tying the mat bags in which 
practically all the sugar of the Philippines is packed for export. 
A species found in Palawan and Surigao furnishes material 
for very fine walking-sticks, known in commerce as Malacca 
canes. 
GENERAL SUPPLY OF RATTAN 
The virgin forests of the Philippines, according to Whitford,* 
cover 104,000 square kilometers (40,000 square miles), and in 
nearly all of the virgin forests, except those near the tops of 
high mountains, rattans are abundant; in fact, the young rattans 
are often the most prominent element in the ground-covering 
of these virgin forests, while older specimens are very conspicu- 
ous and lend character to the appearance of the forest. In some 
localities large quantities of rattan have been taken from the 
forests, but except in the immediate neighborhood of places 
having a considerable population, the amount has not been ap- 
preciably reduced. It is practically impossible to make any es- 
timate of the total amount available. Some attempt has been 
made to determine the actual average yield for a given area. 
Two plots in the forest of the eastern portion of Mindoro, each 
25 meters square, were cut over and the yield of rattan of com- 
mercial grade estimated to be at the rate of 5,000 lineal meters 
per hectare, or about 6,700 feet per acre. This yield is believed 
to be rather above the average for the forests of Mindoro, but 
there are large areas which should be fully as productive. 
A compilation of the quantities of rattan on which forest 
charges are paid is made each year by the Bureau of Internal 
Revenue. These figures, however, may not represent more than 
half the actual output, as they do not include the portion cut 

7 Whitford, H. N., The forests of the Philippines. Bureau of Forestry 
Bulletin No. 10 (1911). 
