Their estates are mentioned under the heading “Cagayanes.”
Besides the Cagayan Valley, the following Provinces produce tobacco in considerable quantities.
In Luzon, the Ilocos North and South, Abra, Union, Nueva Ecija. Also Masbate, Ticao, and most of the Visayas Islands. The Igorrote also raise a considerable quantity.
The quantity of tobacco and cigars exported since 1888 is given in the Appendix; and, seeing the enormous extent of land still available in the Cagayan Valley, there can be no doubt that the production can be very largely increased as the demand grows.
The export of leaf tobacco from Manila, the only shipping port, has increased from 204,592 quintals in 1888, to 287,161 quintals in 1897, and during the same period the export of cigars has increased from 109,109 mil to 171,410 mil.
The cultivation of the Musa textilis is almost a monopoly of the Philippines, and, indeed, of certain parts of them.
Volcanic soil, a certain elevation above the sea, and exposure to the breezes of the Pacific, a bright sun and an ample rainfall, seem necessary to the production of a fine quality of this fibre.
Several attempts have been made to produce this fibre elsewhere; the Government of British India sent a gentleman to Manila to study the question. He wrote a report, but I have never heard that any abacá was produced.
The plant was said to grow wild all along the Sarawak rivers; but here again some mistake must have been made, for nothing seems to have come of it.
There is, in fact, nothing so far to compete with it, and there is an immense and growing market. The price has lately fluctuated enormously, and I do not intend to prophesy what profits might be made in planting it.