It is a risky business to plant cacao in the northern Philippines; the trees are delicate and suffer from the typhoons. And the produce is so valuable that, unless watched at night or protected in some way, the cones may when nearly ripe be carried away by thieves.
In Palawan, where the typhoons do not ravage, I have seen cacao trees 30 feet high, with an abundant crop.
The plant from which indigo is elaborated was cultivated in former years to a considerable extent in some provinces, notably the Ilocos, but the export trade was destroyed by the adulterations of the Chinese.
In 1895, 6672 quintals were exported from Manila, but only 462 quintals in 1896. Ten specimens of Ilocos indigo were shown at the Madrid Exhibition of 1887, and the price varied from $12 to $67 per quintal.
For home use the dye is sold in a liquid form, contained in large earthen jars called tinajas. It is known as Tintarron.
Sesame and other oil-giving seeds are cultivated to a small extent in several provinces, but neither the seed nor the oil figure in the list of exports.
The cocoa-nut palm grows in most of the lowlands of the Philippines, except in the North of Luzon. In suitable soil it grows to the very edge of the sea, as in the Cuyos Islands, In the provinces of Laguna and Tayabas there are large numbers of these trees and a lively business is carried on in making oil from nuts or in sending them to Manila for the market or for shipment.
When large quantities are to be sent, they are formed into rafts in a very ingenious manner, each nut being attached by a strip of its own fibre without any rope being required.
These rafts are sometimes a hundred feet long and ten or twelve feet wide, and are navigated across the lake and down the Pasig. Finally they are brought alongside a steamer, the nuts are cut adrift and thrown into the hold through the cargo ports.
The nuts that are to be used for making oil are stripped of their husks and cut in halves. They then pass to a workman who is provided with an apparatus called a Cutcuran. This is mounted upon a trestle and consists of a revolving shaft of hard polished wood, carrying on its overhanging end an iron disc about three inches in diameter having teeth like the rowel of a spur.