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southern portion of Occidental Xegros, for instance — while, as has been 

 brought out in dealing with the individual districts in a previous part 

 of this paper, a good deal of low land now considered fit only for rice 

 culture could be made available for sugar cane by expending a little 

 money on drainage. It is, moreover, not imreasonable to suppose that 

 the average yield of sugar per hectare, once cane growing were freed 

 from its dependence upon the caprices of manufacture on a small 

 scale and the planter left free to attend to this brancli of the industry 

 alone, could, at only a moderately increased expense for fertilizers and 

 irrigation where needed, be raised from the present low figure of 

 •^.71 metric tons (42.9 piculs) to more than double this amount, or, 

 say, 6 metric tons (95 piculs) of sugar per hectare. The possible 

 yield of sugar from Negros under the most favorable conditions would 

 thus be nearly seven times the present one. The probable limits of 

 annual sugar production in JSTegros during the next fifteen years might, 

 therefore, be estimated at a venture to be about 220,000 metric tons 

 under the present system of small individual mills and estates, and 

 500,000 metric tons with adequate capital, careful cultivation, and 

 a complete change to modern methods of manufacture. Just wliich 

 of these limits will be more nearly approached can not be foretold, 

 since it depends almost entirely upon the extent to which new methods 

 shall be substituted for old. 



SUMMARY. 



A brief description of the Island of Negros is given, together with 

 general information regarding its geographical location, size, shape and 

 area, mountains, rivers, meteorologic conditions, history of its sugar 

 production, varieties of cane grown, nationality of the planters, and 

 the labor, available. 



Statistics compiled by the Bureau of Internal Revenue for the year 

 1908 show that at that time there were in the entire island 484 sugar 

 planters, who controlled a total of 05,641 hectares of land, of which 

 27,096 were under cultivation and 38,545 unplanted. In addition, 

 16,904 hectares were certified to as being suitable for cane growing, 

 but not at that time so used, making a total of 82,545 hectares of avail- 

 able sugar land in Negros. In that year 73,494 metric tons of raw 

 sugar were produced, or an average of 2.71 metric tons per hectare 

 of land planted. The low average is caused lal-gely by lack of capital 

 and by inefficient cultivation on the part of many of the small growers. 

 The average yield on a well-cared-for plantation shoidd amount to 

 about 4 metric tons per hectare. 



Very little damage has ever been reported as having been caused 

 by cane diseases or insects. These subjects are now being taken up 

 as a special investigation by the Bureau of Science. 



The Island of Negros may be divided into seven important sugar dis- 



