The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1907-08-02


many years ago when the rice indus
Try in Louisiana was on the same foot
Ing with the rice industry OF II,
> Orient and yet such a revolution hai
/. been erected in the cultivation Of rio,
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 Phil
ippiRe Islands. and one capable of be
ing greatly enlarged. is Manila hemp.
Sixty per cent. Of the exports OF the
archipelago today is Of this fiber, yet
the industry is still in its infancy. 1t
is estimated by hemp exports that the
one Island of Mindanao is capable Of
producing double the amount of hemp
now harvested throughout the Islands
were capital available for planting
and cultivation. Many other islands
OF the group produce this fiber in
great abundance. and consider $780,
100000 a 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 grow
Manila hemp. The output is not suf-
ficient 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 packers.
This is not only enormously expens-
i've, but it utilizes the labor which |
should be employed in field and fac
tory.
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 a plentiful
supply of moisture. And SO favorable ,
ire both soil and climate that the crop
natures in twelve months. giving to +
he planter crop of cane every year G
an advantage rare in any part of the
world. In hawaii, where men are q
making fortunes IN sugar, the aver
ge crop requires fifteen months to +
each maturity. 1t is safe to say that ;,
owhere else in the world is there +
ugar land offering advantages equal h
0 that in the Moro Province. r
Gum ChicIe. p
The extraordinary demand that has =
prung up within few years for gum
hicle has no commercial parallel in
lodern times other than that fur II
ished by the import banana industry .
} the United States from Jamaica ''
nd Central America. The cOnSump- i'
on of chicle has now become so great
lat the propriety Of calling it 4 min u
roduct may we'll be questioned but .
this great cons Jump "
on, it is very doubtful if more than w
few hundred people of the million -
more who use it daily are aware III
lat it is the foundation of all the Sd
le chewing gum in the market. az
bout all the gum raised here goes &c
the United States, where it is abb dl
'rbed by the trust, known as the 10
merican Chicle Company, compound ou
with much starch, sugar and flavor
o adplterants and in tbis form its be
ay around the world and to an ever ~
creasing number of victims of the 70
lrmless, but unlovely, gum-chewing To
bit. lie
In Conclusion.
The Philippine Islands belong to
e United States. If they ever change
I'm liability into an assest, it will -.
I after they have been opened up -
rough the medium of highways and
llways. The Insular Government
S at last secured congressional ac-
N which permits the former to
arantee per cent interest on CAPT.
actually expended in railway con- :,
'uction in the islands. This means
IRE for the future progress Of the ~,
ilippines than can possibly be real -,
ID by those unacquainted with con- -;
ions here.
rhe vital thing for the American ~
APPLE to- understand is the character
the native as a whole, in order to H.
i've at just estimate of his fitness -,
oouornin0 hinaolf anA tho laruoI