34 THE ECONOMIC CONDITION OF THE PHILIPPINES 



met with every success ; and there is today a German planter 

 in Benguet cultivating potatoes. I am fully convinced that in 

 certain'parts the vine could be grown, and at all events those 

 fruits which demand a mild climate. Attempts have been made 

 with tea to a limited extent, and the results have not been un- 

 favorable ; but to all extensive planting — and this is the only 

 way in which it is remunerative — the want of railways, good 

 roads, andj laborers presents the greatest difficulty. Not less 

 annoying is the attitude assumed by the Spanish officials and the 

 monks, unless the planter is ready to dance at their command. 



The principal agricultural products exported are sugar, hemp, 

 and tobacco, and to a less extent coffee, the cultivation of which, 

 however, has of late greatly decreased. Indigo, sapan-wood, and 

 copra must not be left unmentioned, for they may certainly be 

 expected to take a higher place in the Philippine trade in the 

 future than is the case at present. Rice and maize are grown 

 only for home consumption, and even for this purpose the sup- 

 ply is not large enough. Rice is imported from Saigon and 

 Bangkok and cocoa from Java, although the extremely fertile 

 soil of the Philippines could produce all that is required at home 

 and enough to admit of a large export trade as well. Formerly — 

 from 1850 to 1860, and perhaps later — rice was exported from 

 the islands, but the quantity gradually decreased until expor- 

 tation ceased altogether, and finally the grain began to be im- 

 ported. The blame lies with the miserable administration of 

 the country. The planter can no longer compete with Rangoon, 

 Saigon, and Bangkok, where the authorities know how to meet 

 the farmers when necessary, and where ships are not exposed to 

 endless chicanery, such as is practiced by the Manila custom- 

 house officials. For this reason most foreign vessels are careful 

 to steer clear of the latter port. Sugar is chiefly exported from 

 the Visayas islands, and the trade is almost exclusively via lloilo, 

 the largest place after Manila, situate on the island of Panay. 

 Cebu, the third largest port of the archipelago, does now but a 

 small and steadily declining trade in hemp. 



The best tobacco grows in the north of Luzon, in the province 

 Isabella, and the south of Cagayan, the most northern province 

 of that island, in the valley of the Rio Grande de Cagayan. The 

 northern provinces of Luzon, from the Gulf of Lingayen, in the 

 west, to the Pacific, are separated from Manila \>y a range of high 

 mountains, the Caraballo, over which there is, with the excep- 

 tion of a path and the telegraph, no road whatever, much less a 



