ANNIVERSARY NUMBER 1919 



69 



these is the cassava, which grows in various 

 parts of the Islands and produces large quan- 

 tities of starch. Twenty-seven per cent of 

 the weight of the material can be extracted 

 by commercial processes. Cassava needs 

 special treatment to rid it of a glucoside 

 which gives free hydrocyanic acid. This 

 can be done by careful washing, or the gluco- 

 side can be rendered harmless by heating. 

 No data are available on the yields of cas- 

 sava in the Islands, but in Mississippi and 

 Florida, on good ground, 10 tons of roots 

 are obtained per acre. Plants about a year 

 old, selected at random from the district 

 in the neighborhood of Zamboanga, Minda- 

 nao, averaged 11 kilograms of roots each, 

 which, planting 1 meter each way, would 

 give a yield of 50 tons per acre. If 10 tons 

 per acre can be obtained in the southern 

 states of America, with a possible growing 

 season of eight to nine months, it would seem 

 to be perfectly fair to figure as much for 

 Philippine soils, with a growing season of 

 twelve months. One acre of ground in the 

 United States will produce 40 bushels of 

 corn containing 680 kilograms of extract- 

 able starch. One acre of cassava in the Phil- 

 ippine Islands will produce at least 10 tons 

 of roots containing 2,250 kilograms of ex- 

 tractable starch. This, if converted into 

 alcohol, would yield about 1,500 liters of 95 

 per cent alcohol. One concern in the Phil- 

 ippine Islands is expecting to enter the cas- 

 sava industry. 



Arrowroot contains from 18 to 22 per cent 

 of starch. 



The machinery for making starch from 

 tubers such as arrowroot or cassava is sim- 

 ple, consisting of scraping and rasping ma- 

 chines, a series of sieves, settling tanks, and 

 drying plates in case a centrifugal dryer is 

 not used. 



11. Medicinal plants. A very large num- 

 ber of plants are used by Filipinos in the 

 treatment of diseases. Datura, dita, sibu- 

 cao, macabuhay, purging oils, and the fish 

 and arrow poisons have been studied. A 

 few of these are recognized as sources of 

 various medicines in the standard pharma- 

 copoeia. The active constituents of many 

 medicinal plants growing in the Archipelago 

 have been isolated and identified. 



The Bureau of Science is undertaking a 

 survey of Philippine medicinal and poison- 

 ous plants. The advantages to be derived 

 by the people from the use of fresh native 

 medicinal plants in place of those imported 

 from abroad which are more or less in a state 

 of decay is readily realized. It is important 

 not only to investigate the medicinal prop- 

 erties of local species actually used by Fili- 

 pinos in the practice of medicine, but also 

 to investigate local species not now used that 

 are closely allied to those yielding drugs used 

 in other countries. It is" also quite probable 

 that during the course of these pharmaco- 

 logical and chemical investigations certain 

 medicinal plants of specific action whose 

 therapeutic values are comparatively un- 

 known at present will be discovered. There 

 are a few commercial species of medicinal 

 plants now known. The St. Ignatius bean 

 (Strychnos ignatii Berg.) yields strychnine 

 and brucine. The species found native only 

 in the Philippines is commercially import- 

 ant for export at the present time. The 

 castor oil plant, croton oil plant, kamala, 

 and datura (as a source of atropine) are very 

 little or not at all utilized, although all grow 

 very luxuriantly and are very abundant. 

 On account of the war, many inquiries have 

 been received recently especially concern- 

 ing the cultivation of the castor plant. Tan- 

 gan-tangan, the source of castor oil, occurs 

 as a weed in and about towns throughout 

 the Philippines, yet its cultivation on a com- 

 mercial scale has never been attempted. 

 There is no reason why this plant should not 

 be grown successfully on a commercial scale 

 and that we discontinue to import our sup- 



ply of castor oil. The same may be said of 

 tuba or macaisa which yields croton oil, and 

 other drug-yielding plants. The work of our 

 medicinal plant survey is to discover the 

 potential commercial medicinal plants of the 

 Islands and encourage the development of 

 the industry and the cultivation of certain 

 standard drug plants by 'ndividuals. 



12. Vegetable oils. The vegetable oils 

 of the Philippine Islands, other than coconut, 

 are seldom discussed, though they are very 

 important. Among these are lumbang, ka- 

 poc, cashew, castor bean, cotton seed, physic 

 nut, and pili. The production of lumbang 

 oil and of pili nut oil is increasing and are of 

 considerable importance. Other oils now little 

 known will no doubt prove to be of consider- 

 able commercial value. 



13. Rubber. Some rubber is produced 

 in the Philippine Islands at the present time 

 not only from introduced cultivated rubber 

 trees of tropical American origin, but also 

 from local species of vines. Recently we 

 have received specimens of first-class rubber 

 from the northern part of Mountain Prov- 

 ince produced from an unknown species of 

 vine. The sample of this rubber was shown 

 to a representative of Behn, Meyer & Co., 

 who says it could be graded as No. 1, plan- 

 tation rubber which, at present New York 

 quotations, is worth 1.58 pesos per pound. 

 The representative in question was quite 

 enthusiastic over the prospect. This prod- 

 uct is worth of investigation, and rubber 

 production in the Mountain Province could 

 be developed successfully if the plantoccurs in 

 sufficient abundance. The rubber industry 

 could be developed extensively in parts of 

 Mindanao outside of the typhoon region. 



14. Rattans. Many species of rattan 

 grow in the Philippine Islands in abundance. 

 The Malay trade-centers in Singapore, where 

 most of the Sumatran and Bornean supplies 

 are received, are well organized. The Phil- 

 ippine rattan trade is in a very unorganized 

 condition. I believe it to be true that the 

 Filipinos actually buy back their own bejuco 

 from Hongkong after it had been shipped 

 there by way of Singapore. This industry 

 needs thorough study. 



15. Guano. Guano occurs in limestone 

 caves in nearly every province. Studies 

 made in the past by the Bureau of Science 

 show the guano from many localities to be 

 valuable for fertilizing purposes. The Bu- 

 reau of Science has encouraged the sugar 

 planters to use this guano. It is beginning 

 to be used to some extent among the sugar 

 planters, who mix their filter-press refuse and 

 ashes with it to put on the cane at the rate 

 of about two tons per hectare. The guano 

 can be delivered to any hacienda for about 

 one fifth the cost of commercial fertilizers, 

 and it has given admirable results. One 

 planter in the Silay district increased his crop 

 nearly 100 per cent by the use of guano. 



16. Iron and iron ore. Valuable deposits 

 of high-grade hematite and limpnite are 

 found in several places in the Philippine Is- 

 lands. The three principal deposits are near 

 the towns of Sibul Springs and Angat, Bu- 

 lacan Province; Mambulao, Camarines; and 

 in northeastern Surigao between Gigaquit 

 and Cantilan. These deposits are undevel- 

 oped, but they have been carefully examined 

 by the geologists of the Bureau of Science, 

 who report the measurement of over 500,000,- 

 000 metric tons of available ore. The iron 

 produced annually from the Bulacan ores 

 by native smelters amounts to over 100 tons. 

 The Camarines deposit is one of the richest 

 of high grade available and is ideally situated 

 for water transportation of the ore. The 

 Surigao deposit is one of the largest undevel- 

 oped deposits in the world. Four hundred 

 ninety-seven million eight hundred thousand 

 metric tons of ore have been drilled and mea- 

 sured in this deposit. The extent of the 

 deposit has been determined, but only the 

 richest portions have been measured. There 



are many nations who would be very glad 

 to acquire the property rights of these depos- 

 its, but they are conserved to the Philippine 

 Islands only by Executive Order No. 63 of 

 1914 and the imposition of an export tax of 

 2 pesos per ton. When the Surigao iron is 

 mined at the present rate of taxation, the Gov- 

 ernment will realize about 1 peso per ton in 

 taxes, which will amount to more than 500,- 

 000,000 pesos. When these deposits are 

 worked they will develop an immense indus- 

 try in the Philippine Islands. 



17. Other metallic mineral resources. 

 The production of gold is steadily increasing. 

 In 1915 the output was worth over 2,600,000 

 pesos and, in my opinion, for 1916 it will be 

 increased by nearly 100 per cent. 



The copper deposits of Mancayan, Moun- 

 tain Province, have been worked for years 

 and are the largest known in the Philippine 

 Islands. Large amounts of high-grade ore 

 have been shipped out, and 500,000 tons of 

 2.5 per cent ore are available and might be 

 profitably worked. Copper deposits are 

 found in many other provinces, but little is 

 known about them. 



Manganese occurs in Ilocos Norte, Panga- 

 sinan, Masbate, and a few other provinces. 

 Three thousand tons worth about 10 pesos 

 per ton were mined in Ilocos Norte this year 

 and shipped to Japan. 



Silver, lead, and zinc also occur in several 

 places in the Philippine Islands and should 

 prove to be valuable. 



18. Coal. Almost every island in the 

 Philippine Archipelago and a majority of the 

 provinces are known to contain coal. The 

 data which the Bureau of Science has accu- 

 mulated concerning the quantity and quality 

 of coal fields enables it to make intelligent 

 estimates of the recoverable tonnages of dif- 

 erent grades. In quality the coal ranges 

 from black lignite to semianthracite. Con- 

 servative estimates show that there is "in 

 sight" at least 3,500,000 tons of black lignite 

 and 1,000,000 tons of subbituminous coal, 

 while the probable tonnage is: black lignite, 

 26,500,000, subbituminous, 31,500,000; bitu- 

 minous or semianthracite, 3,500,000. The 

 possible tonnages are great. The largest an- 

 nual (1909) production to date is 30,336 me- 

 tric tons valued at 197,184 pesos. Owing 

 chiefly to lack of development, the produc- 

 tion has declined since 1909. There are sev- 

 eral reasons which make the establishment 

 of coal mining in the Philippine Islands dif- 

 ficult. Two of the greatest of these are: 

 first, the coal is not of superior quality and 

 is liable to spontaneous combustion both in 

 the mine and in storage; secondly, the coal 

 seams of the best coal are sometimes faulted, 

 and there is discontinuity of the seams. Be- 

 fore the workof extensively mining the prop- 

 er grades of Philippine coals, which are high 

 in moisture and volatile combustible matter 

 is undertaken again, it is desirable to carry 

 on further work to ascertain beforehand the 

 type of stationary and marine boiler furnaces 

 most suited to such coals. With the present, 

 high price of coal, any substitution might be 

 marketable, but if freight rates become re- 

 duced, competition becomes keener, and I 

 would recommend against the development 

 of seams except those of the bituminous grade 

 which can better stand against competition. 

 By developing the better grade coals, 

 there would be a wider immediate 

 use and there would be less decline in 

 the consumption if normal prices were re- 

 stored. It is probable that Philippine coals 

 were all laid down at approximately the same 

 time, but faulting has resulted in an increased 

 pressure which improved the quality of the 

 coal by the removal of moisture and volatile 

 combustible matter. In the mining of better 

 grade coals there would be difficulties en- 

 countered on account of faults, but the prod- 

 uct would be more marketable and the dis- 

 continuity is not so great but that the coal 

 seams may be followed. 



