Progress in the Philippines 117 



valuable by-products are all lost, while 

 rice threshed by steam power is ready 

 to go to the cleaning mill at once, and 20 

 per cent of the rough rice is saved in 

 bran and polish, which make excellent 

 cattle food. The rice crop being thus 

 quickly disposed of, the farmer and his 

 laborers have time to put in other 

 crops. Several steam threshers have 

 been bought by Filipino farmers. 



Experiments in growing Indian corn 

 have been successful. A crop may be 

 matured in less than three months. 

 The meal, pound for pound, is more 

 nutritious than rice. The average rice 

 crop, which requires six months to 

 grow, does not yield more than 750 

 pounds of cleaned rice per acre, while 

 the average corn crop is 15 bushels per 

 acre, which is more than equivalent in 

 food value to 750 pounds of cleaned 

 rice. It is apparent, therefore, that the 

 successful stimulation of corn produc- 

 tion will greatly increase the available 

 food supply. 



Attempts are being made to use the 

 castor bean, which grows all over the 

 islands. Iyittle use heretofore has been 

 made of its fruit, while much castor oil 

 is imported at a high price. Press 

 cake obtained from this bean is worth 

 approximately $20 gold per ton for fer- 

 tilizer. 



The stimulation of cocoanut produc- 

 tion, at present a source of considerable 

 wealth to the Philippines, has been 

 begun. The trees thrive on ground 

 which is worthless for other purposes. 

 They require comparatively little care, 

 and when grown in large numbers are 

 not often seriously injured by the at- 

 tacks of insects or by unfavorable cli- 

 matic conditions other than long-contin- 

 ued drouth. At present nuts are, as a 

 rule, planted haphazard, without regard 

 to the productivity of the trees from 

 which they come. Plantations are cul- 

 tivated little, if at all. Fruit is often 

 harvested before maturity; no use what- 

 ever is made of the husk except for fuel. 



Copra is sun dried at considerable ex- 

 pense and with constant risk of heavy 

 loss from sudden showers, or, during 

 the rainy season, is placed in bins and 

 smoked over slow fires ; naturally the 

 product is of a very inferior quality. 



It seems that certain trees make ex- 

 cellent growth and fruit heavily when 

 planted in sea sand, which is almost 

 without plant food, provided their roots 

 are laved by the rising tide and the sea 

 breeze fans their leaves. Should it 

 prove that their ability to live and flour- 

 ish is dependent upon the presence of a 

 nitrogen-producing organism capable of 

 cultivation and distribution, so that the 

 barren wastes of sand along our long 

 coast can be made to produce cocoanuts 

 advantageously, it would obviously be 

 more economical to plant them there 

 than to give up rich soil to their culti- 

 vation and incur the expense of pur- 

 chasing and using artificial fertilizers. 



It is found that horses and mules 

 stand the heavy work on the rice farm 

 as well as in the Southern States of 

 America. A native teamster with 4 

 mules plows 4 acres of land per day, 

 while a native plowman with 4 Chinese 

 oxen plows 2% acres per day. The 

 ordinary Filipino, using 2 carabaos, is 

 able to plow about one-fifth of an acre 

 per day; he must have two carabaos how- 

 ever, in order that they may be inter- 

 changed every two or three hours and 

 allowed to get their mud baths, with- 

 out which they soon become incapaci- 

 tated for work. 



The archipelago has a coast line more 

 than double that of the United States, 

 and not more than 10 per cent of this 

 has been adequately charted. The ex- 

 act geographical situation of a great 

 portion of the east coast of the islands 

 has never been determined, and there 

 has been considerable uncertainty in 

 regard to many other points. Much 

 has already been accomplished by the 

 Coast and Geodetic Survey, nearly 100 

 topographic sheets having been issued. 



