Amador ledger. (Jackson, Amador County, Calif.) 1875-19??, 1907-08-02

ne gets any clear idea. Then he may
wander into some unpretentious house
and find circular table with a top
of single piece cut OF the most
beautiful wood, five or even six feet
in diameter, OF another, perhaps five
feet wide and twenty long, also one
single piece.
Grazing Lands.
| Most magnificent grazing lands
exist in Mindanao, rolling uplands
and level prairie lands, although so
far as abundance and quality of the
grasses concerned there is apparently
no difference, the same species grow
ing on the prairies as on the hills.
These are fine-stemmed, hne-leaved
grasses, which, in the United States,
would be populary known as ''bunoh'
grasses.
The water supply is especially to
be noted. In the numerous noun
tain streams the water is perfectly
pure and as clear as crystal, except
Immediately following heavy rain.
These streams, during the rainy sea-
son. like the great rivers, are subject
to great and sudden rise and fall; and
from a quite babbling brook a stream
may change in few minutes into a
raging mountain torrent; yet. where
the mountains are heavily tim bered,
the rise and fall are more gradual aud
do not go to extremes.
Rice Culture.
The cultivation of rice in the Philip
pines is in many respects similar to
that practioed in China, Japan, India
and other Oriental countries. The
labor of a Filipino in the rice fields
of the Philippines has been estimated
at $40 gold and board per annum.
The amount of land which he can
cultivae is two and one-half acres,
yielding fifteen hundred pounds of
paddy. In Texas or Louisiana, on
the other hand, laborer receives $500
gold and board, but he cultlvates
eighty acres of land, and the cultiva-
tion is so superior that with irrigation
water along he produces 60,0OO
pounds of paddy. In short he re-
ceives ten times the wages, but he
produces ono hundred times more rice
than the Filipino laborer.
There is no reason why scientific
methods uf culture and modern agri-
cultural implements should not make
the Philippines one of the leading
rice countries of the world. 1t was
not many years ago when the rice, in.
dustry in Louisiana was on the same
footing with the rice industry of the
Orient, and yet such a revolution has
been effected in the cultivation of rice
IN that state within the last fifteen
years as has not been accomplished in
Chinese rice culture in six thousand
years.
The Manila Hemp Industry.
The principal industry in the Philip
pine Islands, and one capable OF be-
ing greatly enlarged. Is Manila hemp.
Sixty per cent of the exports of the
archipelago to-day is of this fiber, yet
the industry is still in its infancy.
1t is estimated by hemp experts that
the one Island of Mindanao is capable
of producing double the amount of
hemp now harvested throughout the
islands we're capital available for
planting and cultivation. Many other
islands of the group produce this fiber
in great abundance, and 1 consider
$500, 000, 600 conservative estimate of
the possibilities in this one industry.
Many lands and many chimes produce
sugar, tobacco, rice, copra, cocoa and
cotton, but no country on the globe
save the Philippine Islands can gov
Manila hemp. The output is not
sufficient to meet the demand. Much
of that now produced is transported
from the field to the waters edge on
the heads or shoulders of native pack
ers. This is not only mously ex-
pensive, but it utilities the labor
which should be employed in field and
factory.
Sugar Culture.
1t would be hard to over estimate
the advantages of the Philippines for
the culture of sugar. The soil is of
such fertility that it has raised a crop
of cane in every one of the last fifty
years with little or no fertilizing.
During seven or eight months of the
year the forest-covered mountains
are yelled in clouds, assuring
plentiful supply of moisture. And so
favorable are both soil and climate
that the crop natures in twelve
months, giving to the planter a crop
of cane every year ian advantage rare
in any part of the WORLDLY. In Hawaii,
where men are making fortunes in
sugar, the average crop requires If
teen months to reach maturity. 1t is
safe to say that nowhere else in the
world is there sugar land offering
advantages equal to that in the Moro
Province.
Gum Chicle.
The extraordinary demand that has
sprung up within few years for gum
chicle has no commercial parallel
in mndern times other than that fuIn-