PHILIPPINE ISLANDS
1429*
Among the great mining possibilities which loom promisingly mention may be made of the extensive copper properties of Lepanto, of the iron deposits of Bulacan, of the oil-fields of Tayabas, and of the coal mines of Batan, Cebu and Polillo.
FORESTS
Timber forests are found in all the principal islands of the archipelago, covering an area of 60,000 square miles. One-third of this constitutes the virgin forests of the Islands and the rest is made up of scattering, cut-over and second-growth forests which will yield large quantities of fire-wood and some small-sized timbers. These forests contain many of the best hardwoods, cabinet, dye-woods, and a large bulk of red lauans, which are used as substitute for maliogany and also sold as such.
The Government owns more than ninty-nine per cent. of all the standing timber in the Philippines. The public forests are not sold, but are developed under a license system. To-day, there are forty-eight steam saw-mills, which are equipped with modern machinery fit to meet the big lumber enterprise of the Islands. The timber output of the Islands in 1919 was 495,228 cubic metres.
FISHERIES
Fishing is a promising industry in the Philippines. The waters along the coasts of the islands teem with common varieties of food fishes. Among those found in commercial quantites are anchovies, herrings, silversides, mackerels, snappers, pompanos, sea-basses, mullets, milkfishes, sardines, lapolapos, barracudas, porgies, grunts, parrot-fishes, and soldier fishes. The local market, however, is under-supplied as only inshore fishing is carried on because modern equipment adapted to deep-water fishing is not used. Pens or "corrals," seines, large scoop nets, dip nets, circular casting nets, hooks and lines, and basket-like traps are among the local devices commonly employed in catching fish. Other sea-products found in Philippine waters- are oysters, sponges, trepang, pearls and pearl shells, top shells and window shells.
MANUFACTURE AND INDUSTRIES
The Philippines is a prospective industrial field. The country has available raw materials such as Manila hemp, copra, lumber, shells, lumbang and castor seeds, clay, limestone, bamboo, buutal, dye-woods and cassava for the different lines of manufac- tures and industries. Manila and a few other cities are centres of these industrial activities. However, some of the big establishments such as sugar centrals, rice and lumber mills are found in localities nearest the sources of materials.
The production of coconut oil constitutes one of the principal local industries. The first modern coconut oil mill was built in 1906. The recent world-war gave an impetus to the industry, thereby placing coconut oil at the top of the list of Philippine exports for 1919. The first sugar central in the Philippines was established in 1910. Many other centrals and improved machinery were then installed in almost all the leading sugar sections of the Islands. Consequently, after 1910 a considerable increase in the sugar exports of the Islands was noted. Early in 1920 more than thirty sugar centrals with a total daily output of over 20,000 tons of centrifugal sugar were in actual operation. Manila cigars, ranking with the best and choicest cigars in the world to-day, together with cigarettes are the output of Philippine cigar factories. The rope and hemp-braid factories are yearly turning out finished products to the value of millions of pesos. Within recent years, rice milling has become a principal local industry. To-day there are more then 460 rice mills, with a maximum daily capacity of 50,000 cavanes, distributed throughout the archipelago.
Among the local household industries, mention may be made of weaving, embroi- dery and hat-making. The output of the simple native looms, which are found in practically every household in the provinces where weaving is done, increased as the industry found an ever-widening local market. The most important of these native cloths manufactured are the "sinamay" and the "abatex," both of which are made mostly from the abaca fibre, the "piña" made from the pineapple fibre, the "jusi made from imported gummed spun silk fibres in threads mixed with mercerized cotton or the native abaca, piña and maguey fibres, and the "Abel Iloco" or Ilocano cloth manufactured in the Iloco provinces from both native and imported cotton threads. Philippine hand-made embroideries are of cotton and linen; no silk is used. The materials chiefly used in the making of Philippine embroideries are nainsooks, batiste, voile, georgette, crepe de chine and net-cotton. These materials are imported from