ISLAND DEPENDENCIES 



ISLAND DEPENDENCIES 1703 



By comparing these statistics it will be seen that the 

 exportation of hemp has about doubled during this 

 period; copra has leaped into second place instead of 

 sugar, of which there has been a comparatively small 

 increase; the production of maguey fiber has increased 

 over twenty-fold. 



Rice, of which there are about 1,000 varieties more 

 or less, is the most important cereal in the Philippines. 

 The principal rice-producing provinces are, in the order 

 of their importance, Pangasinan, Nueva Ecija, Tarlac, 

 Ilocos Norte, Bulacan, Pampanga, and Capiz. 



Corn succeeds well, but is of comparatively limited 

 cultivation, Cebu and Pangasinan being the chief 

 producers; however, corn-growing is greatly on the 

 increase. Mungos and cowpeas are the only legumes 

 grown under field -culture, but are not cultivated 

 extensively. 



Manila hemp is the leading export article; it is 

 obtained from the leaf-stems or petioles of the abacd, 

 (Musa textilis), and is grown principally in Albay, 

 Leyte, Ambos Camarines, Sorsogon and Samar. 



Copra is the next important export. Tayabas, 

 Laguna, Albay, Samar, Moro, Cebu, Capiz, and Leyte 

 are the source of most of the copra, and the culture of 

 the coconut is on a steady increase. 



Sugar, the fourth most important crop, is cultivated 

 primarily in the Provinces of Occidental Negros, 

 Pampanga, Batangas. and Iloilo. 



Most of the tobacco is grown in Isabela, Cagayan, 

 Cebu, La Union and Pangasinan. 



The statistics below relate to the six principal crops 

 of the Philippines for the fiscal year 1911. 



Both fruit- and vegetable-culture have been greatly 

 neglected in the Philippines, notwithstanding the 

 fact that the soil is almost everywhere of great fer- 

 tility and that a great number of vegetables succeed 

 well and produce abundantly when properly cared for. 



Coconuts, with the steady and increasing demand for 

 copra and other coconut products, are undoubtedly 

 destined to become not only the chief horticultural 

 industry in the Philippines but the leading industry in 

 the archipelago. If a coconut plantation is well located 

 and intelligently cared for there is probably no other 

 enterprise in the Philippines today that offers so large 

 a return with so little care and expenditure. (See 

 Philippine Bureau of Agriculture, Bulletin No. 17.) 



Coffee (Coffea arahica) was a very profitable crop 

 until the entrance of the coffee blight (Hemileia vas- 

 tatrix) about twenty-five years ago, which gradually 

 destroyed the hitherto very profitable coffee-planta- 

 tions. Coffee-culture is now of little or no importance, 

 and coffee to the value of $255,039 was imported in the 

 fiscal year ending 1911. Coffea liberica, C. robusta, and 

 the Maragogipe hybrid have been introduced in order 

 to revive the coffee industry, but without avail. From 

 the present outlook, coffee-growing will never become 

 an important industry until a blight-resistant variety 

 shall have been found that is equal in quality to the 

 Arabian coffee. 



The cacao (Theobroma Cacao) was long ago intro- 

 duced into the Philippines, and large areas are well 

 adapted to the culture of this tree, particularly in 

 Mindanao, but although found in all provinces, even 

 the home demand for cacao has never been supplied, 

 and the cacao products imported into the Philippines 

 in 1911 amounted to $261,935. The reasons for this 

 neglect of what would undoubtedly be a profitable 

 industry are that hemp, coconuts and sugar-cane, which 

 require less attention and care, yet yield profitable 

 returns, have been more than the cacao adapted to 

 the agricultural educational standard so far attained 

 by the population in the Philippines. It should not be 

 forgotten, however, that systematic cacao-culture has 

 never been introduced, either by the Spaniards, or 

 by the Americans after their occupation of the archi- 

 pelago. It cannot be doubted but that cacao will some 

 day become one of the most important of the Philip- 

 pine agri-horticultural exports. 



Fruit-growing, in the pomological sense of the word, 

 is scarcely even in its infancy. Fruits, fresh, canned 

 and dried, were imported to the value of $241,686 in 

 1911, while the total horticultural exports for the same 

 year were but $24,053. It is thus seen that the foreign 

 markets are all neglected, and yet there is no doubt 

 but that Hongkong could readily absorb many times 

 the amount of fruit that is sent there and that much 

 could be exported to Japan, China and Cochin-China, 

 and even Australia. This latter country imported in 

 1910 citrous fruits alone to the value of $107,445 from 

 California and the Mediterranean countries, and, in 

 fact, the Philippines themselves, the home of some of 

 the citrous fruits, yearly import oranges, 

 pomelos and lemons that are far inferior 

 to the home-grown product; canned 

 pineapples are imported from Singa- 

 pore and Hawaii. However, there has 

 been an awakening during the past 

 year to the anomaly of this situation, 

 and considerable attention is beginning 

 to be paid to the fruit industry. 



Owing to the long distance to the 

 principal large foreign markets, and 

 the perishable nature of most of the 

 fruits cultivated, the Philippine Islands 

 can hope to export but few fresh fruits, 

 such as mandarins, oranges, pomelos, 

 bananas and mangoes, and while the 

 production of fresh fruit for export 

 should become a considerable item, the manufactured 

 products fruit canned, dried, crushed and grated, made 

 into jams, jellies, marmalade, fruit syrups, flavoring 

 extract and wine are destined to be of primary im- 

 portance. In this form the Philippine fruits can com- 

 pete with others for the world's markets. 



Two fruits only, the banana and the mandarin, can 

 be said to be systematically planted and cultivated, 

 and even then the care they receive is primitive. Prac- 

 tically all the mandarins are grown in a small district 

 in Batangas; budding and grafting is never practised; 

 marcottage is sometimes employed in the propagation 

 of particularly choice fruit trees, principally the chico". 

 Even the mango, the most famous of the Philippine 

 fruits, is grown on the edges of the rice-paddies, on 

 hillsides and along the roads, instead of in regularly 

 planted orchards. 



Also, there are many districts in the Philippines in 

 which such hardy and vigorous species as the mango, 

 tamarind, chico, and breadfruit have not yet been intro- 

 duced and there are others such as the bauno (Mangif- 

 era verticillata) , marang (Artocarpus odoratissima) , and 

 kambog (Dillenia spedosa), which are unknown except 

 in their native habitat. 



The banana (Musa sapientum, M. paradisiaca, and 

 M. humilis) is the most important of the Philippine 

 fruits as a food; the flower-buds are eaten as a vege- 



