Cotton.—Cotton is only grown in a very small quantity, principally in Ylocos and Batangas provinces. Some of it is sent to China, but the major part of the crop is used in the country. It is seldom or never well cleaned, the rude machines employed for doing so being usually worked by the hand or foot, very imperfectly and slowly, cleaning only a small quantity of the wool in a day.
Cocoa-nut oil.—Cocoa-nut oil is made in the province of Laguna and in Bisayas. That coming from the Laguna is of the best quality, and generally sells for a good deal more than the Bisayas oil, which does not give so good a light, and has a worse smell than the other. The manufacturing processes employed in producing it are very rude in both of these districts, although that followed in Laguna is the better of the two; but both are bad. It has been proposed, however, to remedy this by establishing proper machinery at Manilla for carrying on its production on a large scale, as is done in Ceylon.
The chief difficulty of exporting the article appears to be the want of knowledge of the proper means of seasoning the tanks in which it is shipped. These have not as yet been well made at Manilla; and some merchants have been in the habit of getting their empty tanks from Batavia, as they are usually better made there than they are procurable in Manilla. The best mode of seasoning them appears to be, to fill them all with oil, and to place them in the sun, after being well coopered, above a large vat or other receptacle to catch all the oil which may leak out of them; and after they have stood for some time in this way, the pores of the wood get filled up by the oil, which prevents further leakage.
When filled with water, as has been the practice for some time past at Manilla, on the oil being shipped, the effect, as has been found, is to increase its leakage over what the casks lose when they have not been filled with water, but left altogether alone, as water expands the wood, while oil causes it to shrink. By attention to the preparation of the casks at Colombo in Ceylon in this manner, they are able to send home oil in old beer casks, &c., which, of course, enables them to avoid a great deal of unnecessary expense. Perhaps a small quantity of boiling hot oil poured into a cask, which should then be rolled about so that the oil might wet every part of it, would cause it to shrink more speedily than by exposing it to the sun for about six weeks. I am not aware, however, of this having ever been tried.
Cocoa is grown among plaintain-trees, which afford it some shade, and protect it from the excessive slow heat, which kills it.
Although the growth of cocoa is at present very small, did any one take the trouble to bestow the necessary care and attention it demands, the crop might be very greatly augmented. The best is now grown in Cebu, although, from Samar, Misamis, and Batangas, the Manilla market is also supplied, but it is only saleable at about twenty-three dollars per pecul, while the Cebu grown fetches about twenty-seven dollars per pecul.
Very little is exported, and the chocolate made in Manilla is nearly all consumed there. Supplies occasionally come from Guayaquil of a quality very similar to that of Cebu.
All the efforts hitherto made to send cocoa to Spain, without its deteriorating in quality, by getting spotted, &c., have been unsuccessful.
Coffee.—Although there have been efforts made at various times to promote this valuable branch of agricultural industry, by holding out to the natives rewards in money for a certain number of plants in a state of bearing, it has not as yet had the effect of greatly promoting its growth. Tayabas and Laguna are provinces from which most of it comes to Manilla, but this it does by very small lots at a time, and generally uncleaned, which the provincial traders have to do here. The quality of most of that grown at these places is fully equal to that of Java, from which, however, it differs a good deal in flavour. The French, who take off the bulk of the crop, are fonder of its peculiar taste than most other people, and prefer it to other descriptions.
Pepper is grown to a very limited extent in Tayabas, and is all consumed in the country, although in former years some has been exported from that province.