Agricultural Finance & Co-operation. 426 



[November, 1910. 



Your efforts and struggles are not only 

 to feed your own countrymen, but to 

 send to other parts of the world the 

 products which are needed there. Your 

 life has perhaps less excitement and 

 novelty than others, but it is more use- 

 ful and profitable for mankind. 



Our country has so far depended al- 

 most entirely upon agriculture. So 

 when agriculture undergoes some of the 

 adversities which occur so often in 

 tropical countries on account of the un- 

 certainties of the weather, all the 

 country suffers, so that it is like a man 

 mortally wounded, from whose veins 

 the life blood is streaming. Even the 

 public revenues suffer a visible depres- 

 sion. In better years, when the crops 

 are abundant, everyone breathes easily 

 once more. We depend absolutely upon 

 agriculture. This is the reason why 1 

 think that any time and attention given 

 to the study of questions related to 

 agriculture are most profitable to the 

 community at large. 



Since the Payne Bill has inaugurated 

 in our country a new era, which I 

 should call one of economic revolution, 

 agricultural problems have attained a 

 double importance. However, I shall 

 not consider these problems now ; 1 

 shall limit myself to stating my opinion 

 regarding the important duty to be 

 performed by our farmers, and the 

 responsibilities to be accepted by them 

 in view of our new situation. 



Our agriculture has experienced many 

 adversities during these last few years. 

 Rinderpest, drought, locusts, frequent 

 baguios and inundations, all these evils, 

 together and separately, have contri- 

 buted to make a situation very different 

 from the one we should desire. But, in 

 looking into the causes of the unsatis- 

 factory condition of our fields, we ought 

 not to blame Providence or the Govern- 

 ment only, as so many are inclined to 

 do, but we must also ask ourselves 

 whether we have done everything in 

 our power to relieve our own situation 

 and find a remedy for our present afflic- 

 tions, Those who believe that the 

 Government or Divine Providence will 

 do everything deceive themselves. They 

 must attain salvation by means of their 

 own efforts, and above all in combined 

 efforts. 



The easy and comfortable life of the 

 old times is no longer possible. Our 

 standard of living through contact with 

 American civilisation has been quickly 

 raised, and it is our duty to rise to the 

 height of the present opportunity. If 

 we remained stationary it would mean 

 our annihilation, while if we make a 

 strong effort to introduce modern habits 



by adopting the methods of the most 

 advanced countries it will not only 

 result in agricultural progress, but 

 secure for us an economic future vastly 

 superior to the present condition. 



Agricultural instruction in the old days 

 followed old and routinary methods. 

 Our farmers used to be satisfied with 

 the results of their individual efforts, 

 and did not take into consideration the 

 advantages to be obtained by co-oper- 

 ation for the purposes of common bene- 

 fit. The few requirements of our old 

 style of living were met with little 

 effort, and the small value set upon 

 the comforts and pleasures of life 

 made people indifferent about obtain- 

 ing them. With few exceptions our 

 farms have been cultivated with im- 

 plements which save neither time nor 

 the cost of production. The harvest- 

 ing of many of our staple crops has 

 been almost always accompanied by con- 

 siderable losses in quantity and quality. 

 This, to a certain extent, was because 

 each farmer relied upon his own capital 

 and help; and, though we have to 

 acknowledge that there were individual 

 successes, when we behold the general 

 picture we have to admit that in spite 

 of the abundant and beneficent natural 

 conditions in which we happened to be 

 born and live, our agriculture is far 

 behind that of our neighbouring 

 countries. 



Our farmers can not and ought not to 

 remain any longer iu individual isolation 

 if they aim at greater material advan- 

 tages for themselves and for their 

 country. The great centres of light in 

 the West are turned toward the East, 

 and we must shake off the lethargy 

 which has dominated us for centuries in 

 order to face this li^ht squarely. 



We must not be ashamed because of 

 our present material backwardness, for 

 which only a little part of the blame 

 falls upon us, but we must, at once, look 

 for a remedy with understanding, fore- 

 sight and energy, in order to develop 

 and rapidly increase our material wealth 

 as a firm and solid foundation for our 

 growing national power. 



The formation of organisations among 

 farmers is most necessary to promote the 

 development and rapid improvement of 

 our agriculture. They must unite their 

 efforts and be allied in everything con- 

 nected with common necessity or aspira- 

 tion. In the division of labor which dis- 

 tinguishes complex modern life, each 

 group of men with the same necessities 

 and aspirations must be organised for 

 their own protection, help, and defence. 



