126 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. {1 Fesz., 1902. 
FORESTRY IN THE PHILIPPINES. 
The people of the United States are nothing if not practical. Like their 
British cousins, they carry their civilisation, their manufactures, their 
industries, and their institutions into every land they enter. So in the Philip- 
pines, the excellent forest laws of the United States have been introduced with 
the best results, backed up as the Americans are by the most enlightened of 
native chiefs, such as the Sultan of Moro. . A New York journal, the Weekly 
Post, says :— 
The Moros are proving effective allies in the matter of forestry, which, to 
our credit be it said, is conducted in the Philippines more extensively and 
intelligently than we have seen fit to insist upon at home. The bureau was 
organized by Captain George P. Ahern, of the Ninth Infantry, upon the 
Spanish system, already in force here for half-a-century, but more particularly 
modelled upon the successful form practised in India and Jaya. e have at 
present in the archipelago 40,000,000 acres of protected forest, in which con- 
cessions for one year are granted under conditions. No tree less than 
14 inches in diameter may be cut, and in some species even larger ones are 
preserved, while certain rare or especially valuable varieties may not be taken 
at all. The method of felling is also insisted upon, and is planned to injure as 
little as possible the trees remaining. 
. 
A CotnonraL ExaMpLe TO THE EMPIRE. 
It is a delight to learn of the intelligent attention given this important 
subject here, although trained American foresters are so rare that some of the 
offices provided for by Congress are still unfilled, owing to the lack of men 
competent to fill them. Many of the assistants under Mr. McCabe, now Chief 
of the Bureau, are Filipinos, and in Mindoro a Moro chief, the Raja Mujdi 
Mandi, is doing excellent work in looking after all the trees in his province. 
He is greatly interested in the subject, and sees that the rules are enforced, as 
no American could do. The Moro method of dealing with infringements is 
summary and necessarily successful. Heads fall easily under Moro rule. 
Concessions, however, are withdrawn by the bureau in every case if conditions 
are not complied with. 
Four islands are especially well wooded, Mindoro, Paragua, Mindanao, and 
Basilon, 5,000,000 acres in the first alone being public forest land. Already 
884: kinds of trees have been classified, and frequently squared logs from 90 to 
120 feet in length are obtained. If Congress but ratifies permanently the fine 
provisional regulations now in force, we shall be spared the humiliating and 
disgraceful spectacle so frequent at home of miles of forest cut down indiscrim- 
inately, even to saplings, and then burned over, to “clean up” the débris; and — 
our islands will yield a rich revenue from their wealth of timber, scarcely 
diminished as future generations come upon the scene. In the matter of 
gutta trees especially the wasteful native method of felling the tree to obtain 
an inferior and impure quality of gutta is being replaced by the far more 
remunerative and merciful way now prevalent in Java, of gathering the 
precious sap from the leaves and bark. A purer article results, and the tree 1s 
uninjured, while producing even more in quantity. 
THE FOREST QUESTION. 
The coal scare is followed by the timber scare. Increasing demands from 
Great Britain and Germany (the Westminster Gazette says) are faced by de- 
creasing supplies from Norway, Russia, and Hungary. During the last few 
years the average annual value of wood imported by Great Britain has’ been 
about £22,000,000, while Germany has backed a similar bill to the amount ot 
£14,000,000. Europe for the first time is unable to meet the whole demand; 
