78 



MANILA DAILY BULLETIN 



The Lumber Industry of the 

 Philippine Islands 



By Arthur F. Fischer, Director of Forestry 



The history of the lumber industry of the 

 Philippine Islands during the past twenty 

 years, if written, would show what this ever 

 pioneering industry had to contend with 

 going into new,' practically unpopulated and 

 virgin country and developing it. Heart- 

 breaking experiences in the first years were 

 met with especially due to distance from the 

 United States as a source of supplies, inade- 

 quate transportation to out-of-the-way places, 

 and chaotic markets locally, coupled with 

 innumerable other vicissitudes. Having sur- 

 mounted these difficulties, the industry, as 

 it exists at present, has gained the first place 

 among typical "American achievements in 

 the past few years, especially since 1916, 

 is well deserved. 



The lumber industry, ranking among the 

 leading industries of the Islands at the pres- 

 ent time, has many additional achievements 

 to its credit other than attaining its own 

 present importance. In Mindanao, it has 

 been one of the greatest pacifyiEg factors 

 among generally turbulent people, by giving 

 them permanent employment and the means, 

 for securing a continuous and better food 

 supply, changing in many instances a migrat- 

 ory and shiftless people to a settled, contented 

 and fairly efficient working community. Its 

 civilizing influence has been exceeding greats 

 It is no uncommon sight in the out lying mill, 

 to see former members of the semi-nomadic, 

 non-christian population using modern ma- 

 chinery and becoming good citizens. 



About 1*12,000,000 ($6,000,000 gold) is 

 invested in the more modern portion of the 

 industry, while several millions more, of 

 which no accurate data is available, are 

 invested, particularly in animals, by the 

 thousands of small licensees in their logging 

 operations. 



In spite of a large decrease in exports, 

 owing to the demand on shipping for other 

 products and the heavy freight rates, al- 

 most all the mills have continued to operate 



full time and in some cases overtime. Taking 

 the seven larger mills, they produced 62,000- 

 000 board feet in 1918 as against 56,000,000 

 board feet in 1917. The total production 

 of mill sawn lumber was 75,000,000 board 

 feet as compared to 60,000,000 board feet 

 in 1917. These figures are only for mills 

 operating on their own license areas and do 

 not include the lumber output of the mills 

 operating in various portions of the Islands, 

 which buy their logs from logging licensees. 

 If all the production of licensees were figured, 

 the total annual production of the Philip- 

 pine Islands in 1918 would approximate 

 120,000,000 board feet. Even with this pro- 

 duction, the demand could not be supplied 

 and unheard of prices are prevailing for ma- 

 nufactured lumber and will continue to prevail. 



In addition to the native lumber produced 

 in the past year there was imported 6,308,- 

 700 board feet, practically all from the United 

 States, of which a portion was re-exported 

 to India and the Dutch East Indies. 



The local demand for lumber in the future 

 will increase beyond all precedent, as the 

 activity of other industries, particularly the 

 production of copra and the establishment 

 of coconut oil factories, has brought great 

 prosperity to many of the small landholders 

 and the tendency of these small landholders 

 is to build wooden houses instead of the poor 

 class of mixed material houses that has been 

 the chief form of housing for the common 

 people of the Islands. Public works pro- 

 jected for the ensuing year are the most 

 pretentious of any heretofore undertaken 

 in the history of the Islands; the local de- 

 mand alone should be well over 150,000,000 

 board feet for the ensuing year. 



FOREIGN MARKETS 

 The shortage in bottoms and increasing 

 freight rates seriously affected the ship- 

 ments of lumber to foreign markets, with 



HIGH LEAD LOGGING AND LOADING 



a consequent reduction in the amounts of 

 lumber shipped to China and the United 

 States, but this condition did not affect the 

 lumbermen to any great extent as they were 

 unable to supply the local demand. Never- 

 theless, efforts were made to get some ex- 

 port out in order to keep at least some Phil- 

 ippine lumber before the foreign buying 

 public. 



Domestic bleached sulphite, 



delivered $5.75 to $6 . 50 



Foreign beached sulphite on dock. . $6.50 to $7.50 

 Domestic unbleached sulphite, 



delivered $3.50 to $4.00 



Foreign unbleached sulphite on 



N. Y $3.70 to $4.00 



Foreign easy bleaching $4.25 to $4 . 50 



Mitscherlich unbleached sulphite... .$4.00 to $4.25 

 Domestic soda fiber bleached, 



delivered $4.25 to $4.75 



Scandinavian kraf t pulp $4.50 to $5 . 00 



During the two years previous to 1916 the 

 prices for the bleached pulps ranged from 2.10 

 to 3.05 dollars in January, 1914, to from 

 2.25 to 4.10 dollars in December, 1915. 



In view of the present high price and 

 shortage of raw materials, it seems a favor- 

 able time to emphasize the fact that we have 

 here in the Philippines an unlimited supply 

 of material fit for the manufacture of strong 

 white paper pulp. For several years the 

 Bureau of Science has been investigating 

 the suitability of bamboo, cogon grass, abaca 

 or hemp, and various palm fibers for paper 

 pulp. With due regard to local conditions, 

 the data collected show that even under or- 

 dinary conditions an industry of great eco- 

 nomic value can be developed. Careful 

 surveys of some of the available bamboo 

 fields have been made. Sufficient data with 

 regard to the cost of the raw material, the 

 quantity of bamboo available, and the cost 

 of manufacture of pulp are given in Bureau 

 of Science publications, showing that the 

 bamboo soda-pulp industry can be developed 

 for a possible export trade, in direct com- 

 petition with chemical wood pulp at present 

 quotations. 



The Bureau of Science has estimated the 

 cost of manufacture of pulp from cana bojo, 

 dividing such cost into the following items: 

 (1) labor, (2) fuel power, etc., (3) chemicals 

 and supplies, (4) repairs, renewals, deprecia- 

 tion, (5) taxes, insurance, interest. All .of 

 these items have been discussed in detail 

 in the Philippine Journal of Science. Three 



TRAMWAY THROUGH CABINET WOOD FOREST 



