PHILIPPINE ISLANDS
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The rural credit movement is progressing every year, there being 536 associations incorporated, with over 70,000 share-holders. The loans total P2,296,180, distributed among 23,658 borrowers. Of this sum P814,127 is share capital; the balance is loans from the Rice and Corn Fund, Philippine National Bank, deposits and undistributed dividends. This movement is expected to lead to other co-operative undertakings such as Co-operative Bonded Warehouses, Co-operative Industrial Associations and Co-operative Central Banks.
Gold and coal are still the two leading mineral products of the islands. In quartz mining, the Benguet and Masbate districts have been consistent producers for a number of years. In the dredging field new operations have recently begun in the Lianga district of eastern Mindanao, in addition to the well known Paracale district. The native furnaces of Bulacan continue to be the only source of iron production. Other metallic deposits worthy of consideration are the copper of Mancayan and Suyoc; iron of Surigao and Calambayanga Island; manganese of Ilocos Norte and Masbate; and lead and zinc of Masbate and Marinduque.
Coal is being produced from Cebu, Mindanao and Batan. A cement plant is being erected in Cebu by a company subsidized by the Philippine Government and promises to start operations by 1923. Exploratory drilling for petroleum in Bondoc Peninsula has been under way now for over a year; the deepest hole is down over 3,000 feet. Several geological exploration leases for petroleum have also been taken up in Leyte. Other non-metallic deposits undergoing development are the bituminous rock of Leyte, asbestos of Ilocos Norte, and the guano and phosphate rock deposits of Capiz,
The total mineral products of 1921 were valued, approximately, at $3,000,000.
FORESTS
Timber forests are found in all the principal islands of the archipelago, covering an area of about 76,000 sq. miles, or 67 per cent. of the total area. Not less than 65,000 sq. miles are commercial forests. These forests contain some of the finest timber in the world, especially for cabinet work. Many species of the Dipterocarp family are used as substitute for mahogany and are sold in foreign markets as Philippine mahogany. Minor forest products, such as rattan, copal gum, tanbark, dyebark, and dyewood are abundant.
The Government owns more than 99 per cent. of all the standing timber of the Philippines, and the Bureau of Forestry has control over them. The public forests are not sold, but are developed under a license system. To-day there are 48 steam sawmills, which are equipped with modern machinery fit to meet the big lumber enterprise of the Islands. In 1921 the timber output was 653,944 cubic metres, of which the production of lumber by saw-mills was approximately 100,000,000 board feet (235,849 cubic metres). The Government revenue from the sale of timber and other forest products for the year was P1,013,151.16.
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.
MANUFACTURES 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, buntal, dye-woods and cassava for the different lines of manufac tures and industries. Manila and a few other cities are centres of these industrial
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