The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1909-03-16
to build the road. but it has been done

to build the road. but it has been Done
in much less than that"
What did the road cost2'
IN the Eetshborhood~ of fourteen
or 1ifteen n.illioT dollars. We shal
Fuild branch roads here and there and
shall open up the Whole Of the settled
part Of the island through railways"
Big Changes in E'ormosa.
With other Improvements nave
YOU made?,,
A great many. we are PRACTICAL
~ making q new island of T~aiwan,"
lion messages are sent over them year
we are now making the island pay
its own expenses, and it Will in time
pay for all its improvements. We are
putting roads everywhere. We have
introduced post offices into all the
towns. In 1881 there were only forty
five places where. postage stamps
could be bought There are now six
or seven hundred. About thirteen
million letters and post cards and
about five million other postal pack
ages so through the mails every year.
We AVE none order offices and
postal savings banks with tens of
thousands of depositors. We have
something like two thousand miles of
telegraph wire and about a half mil
lion messages are sent over them
~. Our telegraph receipts are more
than a million yen per annum, and
they yield a profit to the government.
We have a good telephone system eS-
tabliShed. There are several hundred
mills of lines and the telephone calls
Erun up into the millions a year. We
| are using wireless telegraph in some
districts into which the ordinary lines
have not been extended
HHoW about your connections with
Japan-and Ehina?'
They ares4yery good. The Osaka
ISn0cpn KqiSh9%h9S / n rec or four.
steamers a month via Moil. The pas
sage takes about four days. There
is a regular service of steamers
around the coast Of the island and
regular connections with Fuchan.
Arnboy, Swallow, and Honkong. AS
/ a. result of the good steamship COM
munication and our improvements in
the island, the with Japan
is steadily increasing and q large pro-
portion of the foreign goods comes
from here. The imports Of the island.
now amount tos in the n~eighborhood
Of thirty million yen n the exports
ere considerably more than that.
More than one-half Of the imports
come from Japan and more than half
Of the exports so there
{" sugar. Rice and Tea.
rs F1ormosa q rich land?
Yes replied Baron Goto. 1t has
much excellent soil and it produces
large crops of tea, rice, sugar and
hemp. Almost anything that will
grow in the Philippine Islands viii
grow there. Sugar is proving especial
ly valuable. Some time g the GOV
eminent imported seven American
mills to crush the cane and a number
Of new manufacturing firms have
been established. Sugar has been
raised .there for hundreds of years
and it is still the chief crop. The yield
is now from twenty to forty thou
sand pounds per acre.
AS to rice, we are trying to i'm
prove the product in quantity and
quality. The people are now raising
two crops q year in most parts OF
the island. We expect to better the
tea also and give back to it the high
standing which it formerly held in
the American market. The chief va
riety is known as OolOng. 1t was first
sent to America in 1867, when 1t was
worth more than q dollar a pOund
The annual exports now amount to
about II, 0OO,0 600 pounds. of which
Oolong constitutes about one-thlrd OF
the whole. I understand the tea is
very popular in America. and that its
sale there might be still greatly IN
creased"
The Camphor Monopoly.
How about the camphor mono
poly? / understand h "a Japan sup
plies the world With that drug. .
That is true and it is also true
that most Of the supply comes from
FOrmosa. Within the last year or so
canlphor forests have been discovered
in China, and there is q respect or
competition from the country. Al
present we have a monopoly OF the
worlds trade and the government has
control of the manufacture and sale
in order to protect the industry. When
we took possession CT the island we
found the camphor business in a pre-
carious state. No efforts were MADE
to snare the trees and the crudest
methods were employed in the manu-
facture. Now factories have been es-
tablished in FornOsa and Japan, ana
the most of the product goes abroad,
| aithen direct or through