The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1909-08-10
America in the Philippines
X-GREAT AGRICULTURAL RESOURCES.
BY Frederic }. Haskin.

Manila No one can charge that nature
has been niggaIdly in her gifts to the
Philippines Nowhere Is vegetation more
luxuriant, and nowhere is there d greater
variety Of useful products. japan. with
FOrmOsa, has an area Of 145655 square
miles, less than % per cent Of which is
ullable. The population OF Japan Is %, =
10000. The area Of the Philippine is
lands is l2l,s5s square miles, 40, and 11o
the population is about S,octOVO
Nearly the whole OF its area is ara
Bile, and the greater portion Of It is a
garden spot.
The Philippines. with agriculture prop
erly developed, could support a popula-
ton larger than that OF Japan, and the
position of Manila with regard to Asian
markets gives the islands magnificent
opportunities for exporting both agricul-
tural products and the surplus output of
factories. The great need of the Islands
IS their rapid development as producers
Of staples for home consumption and ex-
port trade. At present Manila annually
imports millions Of dollars worth of rice,
while excellent rice lands lie faliow.
In valleys which rival those OF the
Nile in richness one sees agricultural
methods as primitive as those of Egypt
The taos ploW Is made from the crotch
OF a tree. lightly shOd with iron. This
is hitChed to "A Ca-abaO, an animal as
dignified as the donkey and as deliberate
in his mOFem -nts as the snail Upon. the
edge of a cane field there is q sugar mill
made OF two revolving stones or rollers
of moiave wood. which crush only 80 or
50 per cent Of the sap from the cane
The rest goes TO waste.
Within the last decade the farmer has
been discouraged by war. by pestilence,
by ladronism by rinderpest that killed 80
per cent of his cara ao, by surra that
killed his horses. and by native politicians
who tell that what ne wants is not bread
and meat but Independence. lie has
hardly had time TO get upon his feet. but
with a vigorous pushing Of agricultural
instruction and experimentation by tn IL
nsular government. ne may come into
his own within the next decade. Until
farming is put upon modern basis.
great prosperity viii not come 10 the
Philippines
If on is asked what crops vii grow
in the Philippines the answer in detail
must be made in the form OF catalogue
Of the products of all tropical and Sc mi
tropical countries. Hemp, tobacco, sugar
and rice are usually m sntiOned as the
great Philippine stayles, but these are
only a few of the crops that can be pro
duced upon a remuneratiVe scale. Coffee.
chocolate, cCcoanuts. tropical fruits of all
kinds rubber, sisGl. hemp, tapicca, gutta
perCha, pepper, indigo. and numerous
other tropical products may be grown
with less outlay in money and labor, IN
proportion to returns than most crops
require in temperate zones.
From inVeterate critics of the Filipino
comes the statement that when the plague
killed the Carabao a few years ago the
farmers sat down with their hands folded
and did not attempt to piow their fields:
Chinese. in similar circumstances, would
have hitched coolies TO their plOws, but
FiipinOs, like Occidental peoples, use
only animals as beasts of burden. They
did what American farm RS would have
done in the same dilemma. Quite ike
an American farmer one Filipino in LUZ
on bought gasOlene traction motors when
his carabao died, and ran his ploWs WIFI
them As the season was far advanced
- H. a p 10
and plowed by night as we'll as by day.
Other native farmers of means and edu-
cation are adopting American methods,
but the vast majority lack both means
and education, and their progress is
necessarily slow.
The slump in hemp of all kinds has
been a hard blow to Philippine interests
Coming after the war and upon the heels
Of other disaste II has, naturally, had
serious effect. Manila hemp mas never
had a successful rival and Manila lines
ire known to sailors in every port IN the
world The fiber is the product OF the