PHILIPPINE ISLANDS
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colleges is around 115,000. These schools offer primary, intermediate, secondary, collegiate, technical and vocation courses, and come under the supervision of the Department, of Public Instruction. Practically all these offer instruction in English, and even the old Spanish schools and colleges have English as the medium of instruc- tion. Upon graduating from the high schools, the students are admitted to higher institutions of learning, among which are the University of the Philippines, established and maintained by the Philippine Government, the University of Santo Tomas, the Colegio de San Juan de Latran, the National University, and the University of Manila.
English and Spanish are both used as official languages and are widely spoken in the Islands. There are six established native dialects with some printed literature, namely, the Tagalog, Visayan, Ilocano, Bicol, Pangasinan and Pampangan.
Not including the various dialects of the Mohanimedans of Mindanao and Sulu, or of the Mountain tribes of Northern Luzon, or of various tribes of Pajans.
AGRICULTURE AND MINERALS
Cane Sugar is by far the most important product of the Islands. Extensive areas of cane are under cultivation in Negros, Panay, Central Luzon, Cebu, Mindanao and Leyte, and modern mills and refineries have been established, in recent years, in thees localities,
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The Philippine Islands is an agricultural country. The people depend chiefly on domestic agricultural products for their livelihood, and approximately 88 per cent. of the total exports of the Islands is made up of the produce of the farms. The soil is fertile to a degree, being for the most part volcanic in origin and exceedingly rich in all varieties of sedimentary deposits. The total area of cultivated lands in the Philip- pines at the present time is estimated at 6,296,178 hectares, or 20 per cent. of the entire area of the country.
Rice is the staple food-product of the inhabitants of the Islands. It is their most widely cultivated crop. The area devoted to its cultivation is nearly two million hectares. Considerable quantities of this cereal, however, are still imported, chiefly from French Indo-China. Through the efforts of the Bureau of Plant Industry local farmers are realizing the advantages of scientific methods in rice farming. Seed selection is given due emphasis. Several irrigation systems are now completed, many more are in process of construction, and others are being projected. This is bound in the near future to do away with the ravages of droughts, which are of periodical occurrence, and at the same time make feasible the growing of two or three crops a year in the rice sections of the archipelago. The extension of cultivated areas is also receiving due attention from the Government and the local farmers.
Manila hemp, which the Philippines supplies to the world as first-class cordage material, is produced from the leaf stalks of the Abaca plant thriving extensively in the Islands only. The fibre is also used for making binder twine, and from the old I disintegrated Manila ropes is made the well-known and much-used Manila paper. In the Philippines, Abaca fibre is extensively used in the manufacture of cloth. In the making of baskets, slippers, mats and other articles, the fibre has been tried with excellent results. Within the last few years a very important use for the tibre has been found in the manufacture of hats,
Coconut palms are grown extensively and copra and vegetable oil constitute a considerable source of wealth. Tobacco is grown successfully in the fertile valleys especially of Cagayan river, and is exported to the United States and Spain in the form of Cigars and leaf tobacco. The best and choicest class is raised in the provinces of Cagayan and Isabela in northern Luzon.
Sugar-cane thrives very well, principally in the island of Negros. The most noteworthy feature or sugar-cane growing and sugar manufacturing is the increase in the number of sugar centrals during recent years. The extension of the cultivated area and the introduction of tractors and other farm machinery of good varieties, use of fertilizers and proper culture have largely brought about the increase in production.
Among the other crops with great agricultural possibilities are maguey, sisal, corn, coffee, rubber, kapok, cacao, cassava, peanut, vegetables and fruits. Cattle-raising as an agricultural pursuit is also very promising.
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