Directory_and_Chronicle_1924 — Page 1523

1428

PHILIPPINE ISLANDS

and colleges have included English in their curricula. Upon graduating from the high schools, the students are admitted to higher institutions of learning, foremost, among which is the University of the Philippines, established and maintained by the Philippine Government.

Sixty-six per cent. of the people of the Islands, ten years of age or over, can read and write. The census taken in 1903 showed that only 20.2 per cent. of the people could read and write,

English and Spanish are both used as official languages and are widely spoken in the Islands. The English language is becoming the dominant language. There are six established native dialects with some printed literature, namely, the Tagalog, Visayan, Ilocano, Bicol, Pangasinan and Pampangan.

AGRICULTURE

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 3,643,000 hectares, or 12 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 in 1921 was 1,673,381 hectares. Considerable quantities of this cereal, however, are still imported, chiefly from French Indo-China. Through the efforts of the Bureau of Agriculture 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 a plant thriving in the Islands. The fibre is also used for making binder twine, and from the old disintegrated Manila ropes is made the well-known and much-used Manila paper. In the Philippines, hemp 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 fibre has been found in the manufacture of hats.

Coconut palms are grown extensively in the Philippine Islands. During the fiscal year 1921, the total area planted to coconuts was 417,959 hectares, with 83,591,896 trees, yielding a total production of 374,622,476 kilos of copra, valued at P59,445,977.

Tobacco can be grown in practically all sections of the Philippines. The best and choicest class is raised in the provinces of Cagayan and Isabela in northern Luzon. In 1921, 90,980 hectares were under cultivation and 52,799,030 kilos of leaf tobacco were produced, valued at P8,777,574.

Sugar-cane thrives well, principally in the island of Negros. The most note- worthy feature or sugar-cane growing and sugar manufacturing is the increase in the number of sugar centrals during recent years. The area now devoted to the cultivation of sugar-cane is 241,345 hectares. The extension of the cultivated area and the introduction of tractors and other farm machinery 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. The total number of cattle in the Philippines, excluding Manila, is 803,825 head.

The rural credit inovement 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.