10 



in vieW;, the writer spent six months, or practicall}^ the entire milling 

 season of 1908-9, on the Island of Negros, taking with him a portable 

 laboratory for the analysis of canes, mill juices, bagasse, and sugar- 

 house products, and, through the courtesy of the planters, was facilitated 

 with convenieneies for- carrying on his work directly on the planta- 

 tions in the more important sugar districts of the island, being at 

 the same time afforded an opportunity of observing the methods com- 

 monly employed in the cultivation of cane and the production of sugar. 

 Eepresentative samples of soil were also secured from each locality, 

 together with all possible data as to their productiveness in quantity 

 and quality of cane and sugar yielded. 



It was manifestly impossible in such an investigation to cover the 

 whole Philippine Islands during one season. Choice must be restricted 

 to a few typical localities in the largest sugar-producing section of 

 the Islands. In point of total sugar produced, Negros has for many 

 years led all other provinces; during the past forty years it has been 

 more closely and intensely devoted to this branch of agriculture than 

 any other section of the country; and, owing to the practical depend- 

 ence of the majority of the inliabitants on the yearly sugar crop for a 

 livelihood, the industry has been more highly developed here than 

 in the majority of other sections. Out of a total of approximately 

 180,000 metric tons of sugar made in the Philippine Islands during 

 the season of 1907-8, 73,498, or a little over 40 per cent, came from 

 the Island of ISTegros alone. In 1893, the year of largest production 

 for the Islands, Negros gave about 115,000 metric tons out of a total of 

 300,000. Here also may be found soils of every degree of fertility, 

 from virgin forest lands and rich alluvial deposits to woi:n-out fields 

 which have been cultivated for upwards of fifty years without fertilizing. 



GENERAL INFORMATION REGARDING NEGROS. 



GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATION. 



Negros is situated at from 9° 4' to 11° 1' north latitude and from 

 122° 24' to 123° 34' east longitude. Three other important islands 

 practically surround it: Panay on the north and west, at a distance of 

 from 13 to 70 kilometers; Mindanao on the south, some 45 kilometers at 

 the nearest point; and Cebu, distant 4 to 25 kilometers from the coast. 

 Manila is some 500 kilometers northwest of Negros, while Iloilo, the 

 principal shipping point for sugar, is distant about 45 kilometers from 

 the west and 100 to 150 kilometers from the east coast. 



SIZE, SHAPE, AND AREA. 



Negros measures 200 kilometers in its greatest extension from north 

 to south. In outline it is shaped roughly like a boot, the gi-eatest 



