Philippine sugar could never have competed successfully in the world’s market under such conditions.
Fortunately one modern central has already been established, and several others are in process of construction. Up-to-date mills could well afford to grind cane for Filipinos, giving them outright as much sugar as they had previously been able to extract from it and making a very handsome profit out of the balance. But as yet most Filipinos have not learned the benefit of coöperation, and are too suspicious to contract their crops of cane to a mill. It follows that mill owners must control, in one way or another, land enough to produce cane sufficient to keep their mills in profitable operation. As we have seen advantage has been taken of this fact by unscrupulous sugar men in the United States who have secured legislation limiting the amount of land which corporations authorized to engage in agriculture may own, with the deliberate intention of thus crippling the sugar industry in the Philippine Islands. It is iniquitous so to handicap an important industry in a colonial dependency, and this legislation should be stricken from the statute books.
Fortunately there is no law limiting the right of individuals to contract their crops, nor is it apparent that such a law could be enacted. Furthermore, there is no law limiting the amount of land which an individual may hold, nor is it likely that any will be passed. It would therefore seem that while vicious legislation may interfere with the rapid development of the sugar industry in the Philippines, it cannot destroy it.
The table on the opposite page shows the amount and value of sugar exports for the past fifteen years.
It is said that the tobacco which now produces the famous Sumatra wrapper originally came from the Philippines, which now have to import it. This condition of things is mainly due to lack of system and care in tobacco growing. Seed selection is almost unknown; worms are not picked; fertilization is not practiced; the system under which each labourer settles on the land, plants as much or as little as he pleases, and manages his crop in his own way, is in vogue, and it is an eloquent testimonial to the merits of soil and climate that the tobacco so grown is good for anything.
Sugar
| To AllCountries | ToUnited States, including Hawaii and Porto Rico | ||||
| Fiscal Years | Quantity (metric tons) | Value in U. S. Currency | Percentage of Total Exports | Quantity (metric tons) | Value in U. S. Currency |
| 1899 | 57,447 | $2,333,851 | 15.9 | 2,340 | $143,500 |
| 1900 | 78,306 | 3,000,501 | 12.3 | 143 | 21,000 |
| 1901 | 56,582 | 2,293,058 | 8.6 | 2,153 | 93,472 |
| 1902 | 67,795 | 2,761,432 | 10.0 | 5,225 | 293,354 |
| 1903 | 111,647 | 3,955,828 | 9.9 | 34,433 | 1,335,826 |
| 1904 | 75,161 | 2,668,507 | 7.2 | 11,626 | 354,144 |
| 1905 | 113,640 | 4,977,026 | 13.4 | 57,859 | 2,618,487 |
| 1906 | 125,794 | 4,863,865 | 14.8 | 7,302 | 260,104 |
| 1907 | 120,289 | 3,934,460 | 11.5 | 6,610 | 234,074 |
| 1908 | 151,712 | 5,664,666 | 17.2 | 48,476 | 2,036,697 |
| 1909 | 112,380 | 4,373,338 | 14.0 | 21,285 | 881,218 |
| 1910 | 127,717 | 7,040,690 | 17.6 | 94,156 | 5,495,797 |
| 1911 | 149,376 | 8,014,360 | 20.1 | 128,926 | 7,144,755 |
| 1912 | 186,016 | 10,400,575 | 20.6 | 161,783 | 9,142,833 |
| 1913 | 212,540 | 9,491,540 | 17.8 | 83,951 | 3,989,665 |
The domestic consumption of tobacco is very large. Practically every one smokes. Exportations are increasing. The tables on pages nine hundred and nine hundred one will give an adequate conception of the recent growth of the tobacco industry.
Bananas form an important part of the food of the people, yet there is not such a thing as a real banana plantation in the islands. The average Filipino has a few plants around his house, but with many of them even this is too much trouble, and they prefer to buy the fruit at a comparatively high price in the local markets. Good bananas sell readily in Manila at half a dollar a bunch, and the best varieties bring even a higher price. The latter may be bought at ten cents a bunch in the Agusan River valley, where conditions are ideal for their successful cultivation. I recently measured a series of trunks there which ran from forty inches to four feet in circumference.
Table showing the Number of Cigars removed from Manufactories for Domestic Consumption and for Export during the Past Eight Fiscal Years