May, 1909.] 



473 



Miscellaneous. 



rapidity. The particular estate whose 

 manager made the discovery and acted 

 upon it so promptly and satisfactorily 

 is the Langkon estate, in British North 

 Borneo. The amount of rubber produced 

 annually in the Straits Settlements is of 

 course, very large, and the results of the 

 discovery and its successful application 

 in a practical way are likely to be far 

 reaching.— Westminster Gazette, London. 



SOME STRIKING FACTS ABOUT 

 MATCHES IN THE PHILIPPINES. 



By Maurice Dunlop, 

 Collaborator, Bureau of Forestry, 

 Philippine Islands. 



One of Japan's most profitable and 

 thriving industries is the manufacture 

 ot matches. Japan's matches are some- 

 times made of paper and she exports 

 over four million dollars worth of these 

 little fire sticks every year. This is 

 nearly three times the value of all the 

 wood she exports and her wood industry 

 is also profitable. 



Japau supplies countries all over the 

 world which are unable to make enough 

 matches for themselves. America with 

 her hundreds of factories cannot supply 

 all her own demands herself. Americans 

 alone use seven hundred billion matches 

 a year. They pay more for their 

 matches than any other country in the 

 world. Japan, Germany, Austria aud 

 Sweden all help out in supplying the 

 demand for matches made by the people 

 of the United States. 



Japan sends matches to the Philippines 

 also ; however, the Philippines have 

 pleuty of material and labour to make 

 their own matches. The one match 

 factory at Manila, the only one in the 

 Philippines, takes care of 90 per cent, of 

 the trade of all the Philippines. This 

 factory is under European management 

 and is an up-to-date institution, being 

 installed with modern machinery using 

 modern methods. The workers are all 

 Filipinos. 



The Filipinos are quick to learn how 

 to operate intricate machinery, and like 

 the Japanese take readily to work of 

 this nature. Hundreds of men, women 

 and children are employed in this factory, 

 and their work is altogether satisfactory. 



The supply of match wood in the 

 Philippines is also practically unlimited, 

 but the difficulty lies in determining 

 just what kinds of wood are best suited 

 for matches, and also in cutting wood 

 enough to keep the factory running 

 from day to day. The factory works up 

 to the limit of wood it can get. 



One might think that almost auy kiud 

 of wood, or at least any part of the 

 particle tree of the right kin I nig 03 

 60 



used in making matches. The reverse is 

 the case. Only the choicest portions of 

 particular trees can be used. Cross- 

 grained timber or timber with knots 

 cannot be used in the match industry. 

 So it usually happens that a great deal 

 of wood is left over. This in the 

 Philippines is used for fuel to keep the 

 factory running. 



In America the cast-off timber of a 

 match factory is utilised to make a 

 number of by-products, and the quarters 

 where the matches are made are some- 

 times the smallest part of the factory. 

 Doors, sashes, shingles, posts and laths 

 are often made from the waste material. 



Almost all of the wood that is used in 

 Manila comes from Bataan province. This 

 is near enough so that the wood can be 

 floated directly over the bay to Manila. 

 The wood is light and floats readily. 

 There is some waste in felling the logs, 

 as the available machines for cutting the 

 timber can handle only a certain size of 

 log. Other machines will soon be install- 

 ed capable of handling the largest logs. 



There are three Philippine trees which 

 have been found good for match material. 

 They are— Taluto, Malapapaya and the 

 other Pincapincahan. The Bureau of 

 Forestry is making continuous investiga- 

 tions and experiments to find other 

 suitable trees. It is thought that several 

 more have been found recently that will 

 answer the purpose. 



When a tree is picked for the match 

 manufacture, it is felled and floated 

 with others across Manila Bay and up 

 the Pasig river to the suburb of Santa 

 Ana. Here the match factory is located 

 on the river bank. The logs are cut 

 into short lengths or bolts, and each 

 made to turn on its axis by machinery, 

 and a shaving the thickness of the 

 match desired is cut from the outer 

 surface. Another part of the machinery 

 meanwhile cuts the veneer into lengths 

 aud splits these into match sticks. Then 

 the matches are dipped into a prepar- 

 ation aud put into boxes when they are 

 ready to ship. 



Three hundred aud sixty thousand 

 boxes are gotten out every day in this 

 manner. However, as many as four 

 hundred thousand could be gotten out if 

 the supply of wood kept coming in fast 

 enough. 



If matches could be exported from the 

 Philippines, Japanese competition could 

 be met. This is true notwithstanding 

 the fact that the Japanese employed in 

 the factories get only an average of 

 eight cents (U. S. currency) a day's 

 wage, while the Filipino gets from thirty 

 to sixty cents a day. But the unlimited 

 wood supply offered by the Philippine 

 forests would help to make competition 



