THIRTY-THIRD BIENNIAL SESSION 
89 
little as photographs from the backwoods of Kentucky, Tennessee or the 
Carolinas, for instance, would be representative of the United States as a 
nation. 
Area, Topography, Climate and Life of the Philippines. 
The Philippines comprise over three thousand islands with a total area 
of 127,853 square miles, covering about seven hundred miles of longitude 
and about one thousand miles of latitude. The two largest islands are 
Luzon and Mindanao. The Archipelago is of volcanic origin and the broken 
surface with mountains more or less rugged are a topographical character- 
istic of the Islands. The Islands are well watered by numerous rivers and 
mountain streams, and level fertile valleys in many parts of the Islands await 
the advent of the pioneer. The large area occupied by the many islands, and 
the great variations in elevation, rainfall, humidity, and the diversity of 
soil, make possible the cultivation of a great variety of crops. Lest I forget 
I will here say that the Philippines have practically no animals dangerous 
to man, and I do not see that the Islands are more blessed with insect-pests 
than some parts of the United States; sunstrokes are unknown, and the 
nights are nearly always cool and pleasant almost everywhere, and the 
typhoons are not nearly so destructive as our dailies would have us believe; 
nor so injurious as the cyclones and hurricanes at home; part of the islands 
are exempt from typhoons. 
7i 
The Leading Fruit Crops. 
As is well known, rice is the most important cereal in the Philippines 
and some one thousand varieties are cultivated; but corn is rapidly gaining 
in favor. Until last year abaca, or “Manila hemp,” was the chief export 
of the Archipelago; sugar is the fourth most important crop, and tobacco 
claims considerable attention. Few people are aware that a fruit, the cocoa- 
nut, is now the leading industry in the Philippines, still this is a fact and 
yet the era of cocoanut growing has only just begun. At the end of the 
fiscal year 1911, 208,476 hectares were devoted to cocoanuts and the value of 
all cocoanut products for the same year amounted to $13,130,636 in the prov- 
incial markets. 
The culture of other fruits is of the most primitive character and with 
the exception of the mandarin, mango and pili nuts, no fruits are exported, 
and most fruits are consumed in the localities where they are produced. 
Next to cocoanuts, there is not the slightest doubt but that some day 
cacao will become the most important fruit in the Philippines, for large 
areas are well adapted to cacao culture. Cacao was introduced Into the 
Archipelago many years ago but no intelligent attempt was made by the 
Spaniards to foster this industry, so profitable in many other parts of the 
tropics, nor indeed has anything been done by the Americans in this re- 
spect since our occupation of the Philippines. 
Coffee-growing was very profitable before the advent of the blight hut 
now the Philippines import coffee yearly to the amount of over a quarter of a 
million dollars. 
