Evening star., 1924-09-14

tenth are Christians. The remainder
are Yakans. land tribe of half
aborigines. who are largely employed
to work the plantations, and the Sa-
mails. sea Moros, who live around the
coast and engage chiefly in fishing.
The principal town on the island is
Isabella, a ragged little settlement of
thatched huts. a few frame buildings
rooted with galvanized iron, an old
Spanish fort which now serves as the
municipal headquarters. and hos
pital built on posts out in the sea.
This hospital is now filled with lep-
ers awaiting their deportation to the
great leper settlement of Culion.
Before the Spaniards came to the
Philippines the people Of Basflan paid
tribute to the Sultan of Sulu, and
they were governed by Sulu dattos.
Today the presidente of Isabella is
Christian Filipino, and the island is
ruled from Manila.
During my stay here 1 have visited
both of the great rubber plantations,
steaming around the island TO the
property Of the American Rubber
Company. which is now managed by
DIR. J. W. Strong, who may be called
one of the pioneer rubber growers of
the world. and spending some time
on the Basilan plantation, managed
by F.. Blum, a Swiss. and owned
largely by Swiss capitalists who live
in Manila. The former plantation has
been planned on a large scale, and
its rubber trees are just coming into
bearing. The Basilan plantation.
which was originally laid out and
planted by DR.. Strong. has now been
in operation more than IL years, and
is today a paying proposition. The
plantation run by DR.. Strong produces
only smoked rubber. the little rubber
sheets about a foot wide and two
feet long, with corrugations in them
like those OF a door mat, which form
the bulk of the rubber of commerce.
but the Blum plantation is turning
out the beautiful crepe rubber, long
strips OF white or cream yellow, which
look for all the world like fancy
dress goods of the finest of crepe,
save that they are about as thick as
the blotting paper you use on your
desk.
But come with me for a ride over
the Basilan plantation and see for
yourself just how rubber is grown.
Mr.. Blum has come down to the wharf
with his motor truck, and will act
as our guide. We shoot out Of 1sa-
bella over a red dirt road as smooth
as a floor, and wind our way through
several miles of the plantation.
great cocoanut groves lining the road
on one side and rubber groves on the
other. The trees are laid out in regu-
lar order and in all directions the
rows Of cocoanut or rubber extend on
and on. Now a great checkerboard
of vegetation is before you; now the
squares turn to diamonds. and again
you look through what seems a great
park. The cocoanut trees are num-
bered by tens of thousands. They
are 80 feet apart, and are now yield
ing something like 100000 cocoanuts
every year.
AS we ride we can see the Moros
and Yakans walking among the trees
with poles 80 or 40 feet long. At the
end of each pole is q knife. which
they press against the ripe nuts high
overhead and the big green balls fall
to the ground. Other men are gath
ering the fallen nuts into carts, which
the great bumped bullocks of India
are dragging to the mill, where they
will be turned into copra.
Now let us look at the rubber for
est on the other side OF the road.
Here the trees are tall and slender.
Some Of them are so feet high. The
| trunks are Of different diameters, but
all have a smooth, silver-gray bark,
which Is SCARED at a point about as
| high from the ground as your knee.
Below the scars on each tree we see
a cup fastened to the trunk with a
piece of galvanized wire in such a
way that the milky sap or latex
drops into the cup. The cup is about
the size of a wine glass or perhaps
| one-third the size of a beer bottle
Indeed, many of the cups are of beer
bottles broken of two-thirds down
from tho top. These bottles were
brought in during the world war
when the conditions were such that