31 



common ownership of machinery, whereby the products of the grove could 

 be converted into more profitable substances than copra. 



3. The present production of copra (estimated at 278,000 piculs in 

 1902) is an assurance of a sufficient supply to warrant the erection of a 

 high-class modern plant for the manufacture of the ultimate (the Gut- 

 ter") products of the nut. The products of such an enterprise would be 

 increased by the certainty of a local market in the Philippines for some 

 part of the output. The average market value of the best grades of copra 

 in the Marseilles market is $54.40, gold, per English ton. The jobbing 

 value on January 1 of this year, of the refined products, were, for each ton 

 of copra : 



Butter fats $90.00 



Kesidual soap oils 21.00 



Press cake 5.20 



Total 116.20 



the difference representing the profit per ton, less the cost of manufacture. 



4. The minimum size of a plantation, on which economical application 

 of oil and fiber preparing machinery could be made, is -60 hectares. 



5. There is no other horticultural tropical product which may be grown 

 in these Islands where crop assurance may be so nearly guaranteed, or 

 natural conditions so nearly controlled by the planter who, knowing cor- 

 rect principles, has the facilities for applying them. 



6. The natural enemies and diseases of the plant are relatively few, 

 easily held in check by vigilance and the exercise of competent business 

 management. 



7. The labor situation is bound more seriously to affect the small 

 planter, wholly dependent upon hand labor, than the estate conducted 

 on a large enough scale to justify the employment of modern machinery. 



8. In view of an ever-expanding demand for cocoanut products, and in 

 the light of the foregoing conclusions, the industry, when prosecuted upon 

 a considerable scale and subject to the requirements previously set forth, 

 promises for many years to be one of the most profitable and desirable 

 enterprises which command the attention of the Filipino planter. 



The greatest mine of horticultural wealth which is open to the shrewd 

 planter lies in the heaps of waste and neglected husks that he can now 

 procure from adjoining estates for the asking and cartage. 



With labor at 1 peso per diem and at the present price of potash and 

 phosphoric acid, all the husks in excess of 300 per diem which could be 

 hauled would be clear profit. The ashes of these, when burned and applied 

 to the old grove, would have an immediate and revivifying influence. 



Many trees in an old plantation have ceased to bear. Whether this is 

 due to exhaustion from old age or from soil exhaustion is immaterial; 

 each should be eradicated and the time-honored custom of replanting a 

 fresh tree in its place abandoned. These renewals are difficult enough 



