The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1912-02-18

II b : g. = . v.
amounted to onlyga little more than
ss..ooo,ooo. and our exports to about
sS.Oo0,0oo. Last year the imports
amounted to sl3,OOO,0o0 and the ex-
ports 10 about SI6.0eo,00o.
The importations show how the
people arc growing In wealth. Since
iSol they have increased their pur-
chases OF -four 500 per cent, OF pro-
and oils more than 300 per cent. Dur
ing the past year the gross sales OF
goods ssnf by the merchants were 50 per
ago, and the bank deposits have in
creased so per cent.
In the first year of our occupation
the foreign trgde OF the Philippines
was only a little moro sa7o0o,00o, by
1908 IT had grown to more than s5S,-
100000. Then came free trade with
us, and 1t jumped to s7S,ooo,o0o. This
year II is expected to reach $4,000, 600,
which Is three times as much as was
the average during the last fifteen
years of Spanish rule. AS IL Is now
every business is growing, and the
hemp exports amounted to l1S,oo0 tons
Money in Coconnuts aud Hemp.
AZ present the two best money crops
OF the islands are hemp or abacA and
cocoanut. The abaca fiber is used for
ropes and ships cables. We use n
vast deal. of it for binding Irvine. ond
II goes i'll quantities to France and
laces and hat braids. 1t Is also woven
into cloth. and there arc thousands of
women and girls who are now making
such cloth in different parts of the
Philippines We take about 80 per
cent: OF the hemp exports. and the best
grades como to our country. The
Philippines began to export this prod
uct ninety-two years ago, and the nrst
year exports amounted to 10000 tons,
and this sold for more than SIT .000,-
00e. r.
How would yon like to have a CO.
coanut grove? There are men In the
Philippines who have some 10000
trees. Each tree yields them dollar
and upward a year. and oil they have
to do is to pick up the nuts.
This business has been Increasing :n
value ever since VIC took hold of the
Islands It has grown 10 per cent.
since 1909. and the exports are now
running at about s1o,oOo,Ooo a year.
They bring in about one-fifth of all
that the Islands sell to foreign coun-
tries. and the business Is capable OF
indefinite expansion. Cocoanut trees
Copra IS better than apples In Oregon.
All you have to do is to plant the CO
coanut trees and keep down the weed.
begin to bear. After that the nuts
drop of themselves, and they havo
| only to be taken UP and carried to
tho markets. In some places the nuts
uTe turned lntO COPFH on the plantd-
ton, and in others they are sold az
they are.
One dollar a tree is considered a.
fair yield the world over, but there
are trees Ia the Philippines which
bring in more than SIS yenr, some or
the nuts being worth much more than
others, To show the difference in the
value of the nuts, In Samoa It takea
1000 to produce a ton Of copra. whilo
In other islands 1t takes 5000 to 5000.
There are groves in the Philippine ISL
ands where $500 nuts will make ton,
and some at San Eemon, of which II
takes less than $500. Our govern
mont Is now sending out Information
to the people as to the best nuts to
plant and advIsino them just low to
cultivate their plantations to gets.the
best crops.
Ny latest information from tho ISL
ands is That cocoanuts are now paying
better than anything else. The officials
say that the copra towns never know
hard. times and that the presidents of
one of them complained that he could
get no servants. The couoanuts bring
in 50 much that the people will not
work.
Sugar md Tobacco.
1he Filipino5 arc not satisfied with thcu