Los Angeles herald., 1909-08-10
AMERICA i'm THE PHILIPPINES
X-Unsurpassed Forest Wealth
By Frederic j. Haskin

product might be counted In thousands
of dollars The established custom i'll
parts of the islands Is for farmer TO
burn down $4,000 or $4,000 worth or
timber to grow $100 worth OF paddy;
The "princlpale," who claims wide
areas of land, although his ownership
is often backed by no title, gives tao
a sack of seed rice and authority to so
into the forest, deaden trees, burn
them and plant his rice where the SOIL
Is enriched by the ashes. After one or
two years the weeds begin to grow IN
the clearing and the agriculturist
moves to a new place and repeats his
method of preparing his ground.
Maps made by the forest service
show where this has been done and
how the destructlveness of floods mas
been increased thereby. Northern Lu-
zon, where floods have recently
wrought great damage, Is a land OF
mountain and valley. The forest serVo
ice maps show that in the provinces OF
Tarlac, Pampagna and Cagayan 60
per cent of the land Is abandoned
clearings and only 10 per cent culti-
waited. With only 10 per cent In for
ests, these provinces are annually de-
vastated by floods. 1t has been dem
onstrated by actual experience in Ger
many and Switzerland that in noun
famous country where there Is less than
so per cent of forest trouble may not
only be expected, but Will inevitably
come. 1t has also been shown that,
while flve-sixths of the water raining
on bare ground runs off, forest area
retains fiVe-sixths of the rainfall and
that this appears later in springs ana
streams when it is needed. From this
it is evident that railroad development
in the mountainous Philippine Islands,
| followed by destructive exploitation,
would spell ruin to denuded areas.
Much of the timber in the islands Is
found along the coasts, where it may
be skidded to the beach and along nav
| igable rivers, where 1t may be eheaply
| handled. A great deal Is also found
where railroads must be constructed,
as for instance, the pine lands or Ben
guet and neighboring provinces 1000
| feet above the sea. One hears great
deal about the unwillingness of the
Filipino to do manual labor, but in the
| lumber industry this has proved un-
true. The Filipino has a natural apti-
| tude for running machines and is fond
of the work. Under an American fore
man he makes first rate sawmill hand
and a mill with a Filipino "crew" does
not shut down for want of efficient or
willing labor. The chief difficulty at
present Is that water transportation
rates are prohibitively high and rail-
road transportation does not exist to
any extent.
In the offices of the forestry bureau
in Manila one may see specimens of
many varieties of wood in the form of
cuts from logs and in the form of
| finished products of the forest These
show the high quality of hardwoods
lthat compare with mahogany, cherry
and black walnut in the uses to which
they are put. A distinctive piece of
| furniture in Manila is a table eight or
/ taf faaf In aiD mater u0ada nf n ainplA
piece from the "butt cut" of a giant
nara tree. One of these tables was
exhibited at the Louisiana Purchase
exposition and attracted no little at
tentlon. In the Jesuits' church in the
old walled city OF Manila there is a
pulpit made of a single piece OF timber.
The entire interior of this building Is
finished in beautiful hardwoods from
native forests.
Forestry in the Philippines is at pres
ent sufficiently hazardous to appeal to
the most daring young adventurer
Long journeys of exploration must be
made in forests infested by naked
savages, who are not always friendly
The service has lost number OF val
uahle men. At one time the Americans
and three Filipino forest guards be-
came the victims of treacherous guides
In the island OF Negros. The savages
are said to have burned a narcotic
of slaughtering their victims while
they slept. When the bodies were dis
covered by a searching party the wild
men explained that their chieftain
needed a hat and that, as they had not
enjoyed killing for some time, they
decided to murder the party TO secure
hat one of them wore
At the head of the Philippine bureau
of forestry is Major George P. Ahearn,
formerly of the United States army
who led an adventurous career twenty
years ago as a government explorer in
the great northwest At one time he
spent three years in. the uncharted for
est with trapper for a guide and COM
panion. Later he was in the fore
ground In some of the sharpest en-
gagements in the Philippine insurrec-
ton. He has long been an enthusiastic
forester, and when the "empire" was
succeeded by the civil government in
the islands he was appointed director
of forestry.
Tomorrow: America in the Philippines
XI-COmmerce and Material Progress.
of tobacco, wines, liquors, etc.? Don't