Cotton and Indigo-planting.
Cotton is cheaply produced, and in quantities sufficient to supply the domestic trade. There is no reason why it should not be made a matter of large foreign export.
Indigo plants grow in the wildest luxuriance throughout the Philippines. Owing to the richness of the soil but little labor is required in their cultivation, and annual returns are expected of 50 per cent. on the capital employed. There are people now living magnificently in Paris and Madrid that owe their revenues to indigo plantations in the colony; the Alvarado family, for instance, whose immense estate is on the island of Sámar, and whose income from this source is nearly $55,000 a year.
There was once a prejudice against Manila indigo among European purchasers. This, however, has been removed by improved processes and greater care on the part of growers and manufacturers. The crops are not so certain as those of hemp, tobacco, or coffee. They are likely also to be injured by hurricanes and eaten by caterpillars. Nevertheless, the estate-owners seem to flourish.