New Britain herald., 1917-09-14

Louisiana and Texas. There are large | profits awaiting those who will intro | duce into these islands the methods | that are making the industry success l full in certain sections of the United l States.
 It is estimated that of 2,543,434 hec- | tares of cultivated land in the Philip r pine Islands at least 1,130,0O0 hec- tares are under cultivation to rice. The production is dependent to a con- 1 siderable extent upon rainfall, and al- 1 though in some sections water Is avail | able for irrigation, the great bulk Of the crop is dependent entirely upon the rains. Thus there is a marked
 variance in production from year to 1 year and the annual crop ranges from about 600,000 tons up to as high as 850,000 tons. Yet even at the highest figure of production, imports are ne- ! cessary to supply the demand. Prac- | tically all of the rice brought into the Philippines comes from Saigon, the principal port of French Indo- China. From 1899 to 1916, both years in elusive. the total imports into the
 Philippines amounted to 3,3S1.S86 me- tric tons of value Of 25,509,495 pesos
 The value of the peso is 50 cents
 United States currency. The average value of rice imported during this pe- riod has not changed greatly In 1899 is was GA pesos per ton, while in 1916 is was 68.7O pesos per ton. The high est average value recorded in any of the years enumerated was in 1912 when it reached S6.70 pesos per ton and constituted 21.O9 per cent of total imports. The lowest was in 1909 when 1t was 57.4O pesos per ton. The heav- fest importations were in 1903 when they amounted to 334,339 tons, valued at 25,1O4,764 pesos; in that year rice constituted 37.12 per cent of the total imports into the Philippines. The lowest was in 1913 when there was imported S6,99O metric tons. valued at 6,S29,1S2 pesos, which made up 5.94 per cent of total imports
 Filipinos Consume 1, ,OOO, ,OOO Tons.
 The total consumption of rice in the islands can only be arrived at by ap- proximating the amount consumed among producers which Is not includ- ed in the official reports. With this
 taken into consideration, the total consumption woud probably be found
 to reach close to one million tons an-
 nually. Assuming an average value Of
 
 production ranges in the neighborhood
 of 75O,Ooo tons. gives an average value of 45,000,O0O to the annual rice crop l of the Philippines.
 As compared with other main prod
 ucts. rice would appear to be one of the least profitable crops grown in the | islands. There are less than 10000 hectares of land under cultivation to | sugar cane in the Philippines and the 1 annual crop in recent years has | ranged above 20,0oO,O00 pesos in value. while in 1916, due to more fa- | vorable conditions exports alone of sugar exceeded 37,00O,o0O pesos. Official reports for 1915 give the area under cultivation to Manila hemp 1 as 457,S65 hectares and the value of | the product in municipal markets as 1 333,212,4S7 pesos. These figures are l believed conservative, as over 42,OOO,- l 900 pesos worth of hemp was exported ! from the islands in 1915, while in 1 1916 the value of hemp exports eX- | ceeded 5000, 900 pesos.
 Other products, such as coconuts, l tobacco etc. yield returns very much greater in proportion than will rice | Reports compiled by the bureau of agriculture show that over A per cent | of the area of the islands that is cul- tivated for the principal crops is now | in rice and it is estimated than fully | one half of the agricultural population | confines it's activities to rice produc- 1 tiOn.
 In 1916 Philippine exports of coco
 nut products, fibers, sugar, and tobacco l amounted to little less than 130,- | O0O0 900 pesos. As against this the value of the rice crop, based on the l price of foreign rice that was import l ed, amounted to not more than 40,O00, | 900 pesos.
 These figures make possible direct
 comparison of the relative values of | rice and other agricultural products. l They show that employing fully one l half of the agricultural population and
 occupying nearly half of the area cul- | tivated, rice amounted to but 30 per
 cent of the value of the export crops. l Under present conditions it is ob l viously more profitable to grow hemp, | tobacco, sugar cane, and coconuts than l it is to grow rice. These conditions | however, might readily be changed l were the government to provide sys-
 tems of irrigation and the farmers to 1 introduce modern methods of cultiva-
 tion. harvesting, etc. Irrigated land
 will easily produce two crops of rice a
 year and with improved methods the
 labor element may be reduced fully
 one-half. This would mean that the 1 islands would become an exporter
 rather than an importer of rice; that