Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1903-01-09
NEEDS OF THE FILIPINOS
Some Peculiar Ones Described
by an American Official.
GREAT VALUE OF THE OARABAOS

the Place of Horses, Cows, Oxen
and Mules-Blessing of the Discov-
cry of Serum to Fight the Kinder
pest-The Locust Scourge.
'There are some conditions which
are 80 widely different in the United
States and the Philippines that it is
hard for Americans to understand what
the Filipinos need and why they do
one thing and fail to do another" said
Brewster Cameron to a recent visitor
speaking of his mission from the united
chambers Of commerce in the Philip
pines, writes the Washington CORE
spondent of the New York Evening
Post. IF an American in Washington
were to meet with misfortune and there
did not seem to be any way of his re-
trieving it here, he would probably 60
to Baltimore or Philadelphia or New
York and see what employment he
could get in one of those cities. The
Filipino has no such resource. He is
a son of the soil in country whose
sole interest is agricultural. When ill
luck overtakes him on his plantation,
there he stays and plods away, making
the best of a bad matter in the hope of
retrieving himself. 1t would not enter
his mind to move away and try his
chances somewhere else
"Then, too, our people have very lit
tie conception Of what the carabao Is
to the Filipino. Here we use horse for
one purpose, a COW for another, an OK
for third and mule for fourth
perhaps. But the poor Filipino uses
his carabao for all these purposes COM
bined. He cannot pillow or harvest, he
cannot take his family Oh a journey.
he cannot carry his products to market,
he cannot have fresh milk for food,
when he loses his carabao. That is
what makes the rinderpest so dreadful
q curse.
Il knew one company who owned
10000 acres Of land and 1900 head of
carabao, and one visitation of the pest
swept the cattle all away, leaving the
Land useless. The worst of neglected
piece Of land in the Philippines is that,
with the rank growth of vegetation
there, it quickly grows up to jungle
and becomes uncultivatable and must
be cleared anew, at an expense perhaps
OF $50 an acre, whenever it is to be
turned to agricultural uses once more.
This is one reason why there is so little
cause to fear that, If the limit of acre
age in single holding be increased by
law, any one who acquires more land
Will let it lapse into jungle again-it
Will be kept up as mere matter of
self protection, if nothing else, for 1t
Will cost more to clear it than to keep
It clear.
"The rinderpest not only has been q
terrible scOurge in it's first manifesto
lions, but is so persistent that when
1t has once smitten herd of carabao
1t is impossible to put others upon the
same land for five years thereafter
without their falling victims too. That
Is what made so striking the success
OF the experiments with the serum pre-
pared by the board of agriculture. A
herd Of carabao inoculated with 1t and
ordered to be put into a certain virgin
pasture were turned loose by mistake
on land which had been thoroughly in
fected with the rinderpest by herd
that had recently died there. When
the error was discovered, there was
great alarm. But to everybody's as
constituent and delight the newcomers
went through the ordeal unframed,
proving the effectiveness of the treat
ment they had received.
THAT twin plague, the locust, is some.
thing of which the American who has
not seen 1t with his own eyes can have
no conception. One day l was writing
at desk with my back to the window
when suddenly the apartment became
dark, as If it had been artificially light
ed and some one had put the lamp out
glanced around to discover what the
matter was, and found the sky and all
the landscape blotted out Of view. !
looked, in fact, into solid cloudbank
Of locusts. They formed a dense wall
between the house and the objects on
the other side Of them. In place
where l saw them descend upon a tree
they covered it SO that there was not
silver of the wood or foliage visible
Nhe next day every shred of LEAKAGE