, 1900-10-13
{, B, BRADLEY WRITES
Of THE PHILIPPINES
amount now produced.
Other Products.

increased to four OF five times the
amount now produced.
Other Products.
There is also in the island vanilla,
cassia and some cotton, which as |
understand grows wild. In addition
to this in Jolo archipelago there are
very considerable forests of the rec
from which rubber is produced and
which industry has never beer work
ed to the slightest degree. Every kind
of fruit known to the tropics thrives
here and grows wild. The wild Or
anges are very good, and with improv-
ed methods of cultivation and the i'm
portation of slips or cuttings from
the superior oranges of California
ought to be made the best oranges in
the world. Cocoanuts grow wild, and
the dried product known as copra is
manufactured by the natives to a very
considerable extent. This is done by
gathering the nut by hand, cracking
it open and drying the meat in the
sun. The product is almost entirely
shipped to Spain and from thence to
France, where the oil is extracted,
which is used in the manufacture of
considerable demand for this product,
and the amount exported can be very
largely increased as the cocoanut
trees thrive everywhere.
Mineral Wealth.
Much has been written in regard
to the mineral wealth of these islands.
There is no question about the exist
ence of large quantities of a good
quality of Ignite coal; no anthracite
or bituminous coal has ever been dis
covered in the islands: but the lig-
mite coal has beer tried most success
fully in the marine boilers; the en-
%gineers of the Compania Martina,
which is the largest steamship
corporation in these islands, pro-
nounce the coal which has on
ly been mined to a small
extent in the neighborhood of Cebu,
as better than hat which is imported
from Japan, although it all has peen
taken from near the surface. The
only thing necessary to start the coal
industry, is to extend capital on a
scale sufficiently large to produce the
same in large quantities and cheaply.
There are large deposits of iron in
various places in the islands, and at
least one place, where there is an iron
mine which is being worked by the
natives and at which they have a rude
smelter, which produces a limited
quantity of pig-iron which is used in
the vicinity for the manufacture of
the various articles for their own use.
There are also very large deposits
of copper, some of which according to
the records of the mining bureaus are
almost fabulous in their richness.
Lieutenant Charles H. Burritt, former
ly of Buffalo, Wyoming, who is the Of
ticer in charge of the bureau of mines
and mining, carries in his pocket a
small copper coin, which was made
by the natives, who reduced the ore
extracted the copper with a bamboo
blow-pipe and then made the coin in
molds of wood. AS a coin, it is not a
success, but as an evidence of the
richness of the copper deposits, it is
wonderful. Lieutenant Burritt is very
confident from the investigations he
has made, that gold exists in paying
quantities both in the form of placers
and also in lodges of quartz at many
places upon the islands of Luzon and
Mindanao. AS to the existence of
gold, iron and coal in these islands in
paying quantities there car now be
no question. The American prosaec-
tor has demonstrated that beyond a
doubt all that is wanting is capital
and American machinery and enter
prise to develop these prospects into
high-class mining property.
Lead and Silver.
Lead, carrying some silver, is al
so found in the islands, as is quick
silver, saltpetre. and sulphur, but the
extent of these deposits has never
been sufficiently investigated to de-
termine whether they exist in paying
quantities or not.
"In the southern portions of the
archipelago, pearl fishing is a we'll OF.
ganized and profitable industry en-
ploying large numbers Of boats and
of men. One company, owned in part
by Americans. has the best modern
appliances, including diving bells, and
is doing business upon a very large
scale. Somewhat to my surprise, I
found on an opportunity recently to
visit Jolo, that in pearl fishing the
pearls themselves are an incident, the
real object of the fishing being the
shells, which are extremely valuable
for the manufacture Of mother-of-pearl,
and immense quantities of these shells
are shipped annually from island
ports, especially, in the Sulu archipel-
ago.