The Philippine Islands Part 30

Albay Province is still the leading hemp district in the Islands. A small quant.i.ty of low-quality hemp is produced in Capis Province (Panay Is.); collections are also made along the south-east coast of Negros Island from Dumaguete northwards and in the district of Mauban [137] on the Pacific coast of Tayabas Province (Luzon Is). For figures of Hemp s.h.i.+pments, _vide_ Chap. x.x.xi., "Trade Statistics."

The highest Manila quotation for first-quality hemp (_corriente_) during the years 1882 to 1896 inclusive was P17.21 1/2 per picul, and the lowest in the same period P6.00 per picul (16 piculs = 1 ton; 2 piculs = 1 bale), whilst specially selected lots from Sorsogon and Marinduque fetched a certain advance on these figures.

_Albay Province (local) Land Measure_

1 Topon = 16 square Brazas = 53.776 English square yards.

312 1/2 Topones = 1 Pisoson = 5,000 square Brazas.

312 1/2 Topones = 1/2 of Quinon = 2 1/2 Cabanes = 3.472 acres.

During the decade prior to the commercial depression of 1884, enormous sums of money were lent by foreign firms and wealthy hemp-staplers to the small producers against deliveries to be effected. But experience proved that lending to native producers was a bad business, for, on delivery of the produce, they expected to be again paid the full value and pa.s.s over the sums long due. Hence, capital which might have been employed to the mutual advantage of all concerned, was partially withheld, and the natives complained then, as they do now, that there is no money.

Fortunately for the Philippines, the fibre known as Manila hemp is a speciality of the Colony, and the prospect of over-production, almost annihilating profits to producers--as in the sugar colonies--is at present remote, although the compet.i.tion with other fibre is severe. The chief fibre-producing countries, besides this colony, are New Zealand, Mauritius, East Indies, Italy, Russia, North America (sisal) and Mexico (henequen).

In 1881 the _Abaca_ plants presented to the Saigon Botanical Gardens were flouris.h.i.+ng during the management of Mons. Coroy, but happily for this Colony the experiment, which was to precede the introduction of "Manila Hemp" into French Cochin China, was abandoned, the plants having been removed by that gentleman's successor. In 1890 "Manila Hemp" was cultivated in British North Borneo by the Labuk Planting Company, Limited, and the fibre raised on their estates was satisfactorily reported on by the Rope Works in Hong-Kong.

In view of the present scarcity of live-stock, hemp, which needs no buffalo tillage, would seem to be the most hopeful crop of the future. It will probably advance as fast as sugar cultivation is receding, and command a good remunerative price. Moreover, as already explained, not being distinctly a season crop as sugar is, nor requiring expensive machinery to produce it, its cultivation is the most recommendable to American colonists.

_Coffee_ _(Coffea arabica)_ planting was commenced in the Colony early in the last century. Up to 1889 plantation-owners in the Province of Batangas a.s.sured me that the trees possessed by their grandfathers were still flouris.h.i.+ng, whilst it is well known that in many coffee-producing colonies the tree bears profitably only up to the twenty-fifth year, and at the thirtieth year it is quite exhausted. Unless something be done to revive this branch of agriculture it seems as if coffee would soon cease to be an article of export from these Islands. In the year 1891 the crops in Luzon began to fall off very considerably, in a small measure due to the trees having lost their vigour, but chiefly owing to the ravages of a worm in the stems. In 1892-93 the best and oldest-established plantations were almost annihilated. Nothing could be done to stop the scourge, and several of the wealthiest coffee-owners around Lipa, personally known to me, ploughed up their land and started sugar-cane growing in place of coffee. In 1883 7,451 tons of coffee were s.h.i.+pped, whilst in 1903 the total export did not reach four tons.

The best Philippine Coffee comes from the Provinces of Batangas, La Laguna and Cavite (Luzon Is.), and includes a large proportion of _caracolillo_, which is the nearest shape to the Mocha bean and the most esteemed. The temperate mountain regions of Benguet, Bontoc, and Lepanto (N.W. Luzon) also yield good coffee.

The most inferior Philippine coffee is produced in Mindanao Island, and is sent up to Manila sometimes containing a quant.i.ty of rotten beans. It consequently always fetches a lower price than Manila (i.e., Luzon) coffee, which is highly prized in the market.

MANILA QUOTATIONS FOR THE TWO QUALITIES

Average Prices throughout the Years

Per Picul of 133 1/3 Eng. lbs.

Manila (Luzon) Coffee 1882 1883 1884 1885 1886 1887 1888 1890 1891 P.cts. P.cts. P.cts. P.cts. P.cts. P.cts. P.cts. P.cts. P.cts.

10.25 12.00 12.68 12.00 12.17 26.14 21.47 31.00 30.50

Mindanao Coffee 1882 1883 1884 1885 1886 1887 1888 1890 1891 P.cts. P.cts. P.cts. P.cts. P.cts. P.cts. P.cts. P.cts. P.cts.

9.30 10.00 12.00 9.87 9.56 19.50 20.34 25.80 24.40 _nom._

Quotations later than 1891 would serve no practical purpose in the above table of comparison, as, due to the extremely small quant.i.ty produced, almost fancy prices have ruled since that date. In 1896, for instance, the market price ran up to P35 per picul, whilst some small parcels exchanged hands at a figure so capriciously high that it cannot be taken as a quotation. For figures of Coffee s.h.i.+pments, _vide_ Chap, x.x.xi., "Trade Statistics."

I investigated the system of coffee-growing and trading in all the Luzon districts, and found it impossible to draw up a correct general estimate showing the nett cost laid down in Manila market. The manner of acquiring the produce and the conditions of purchase varied so greatly, and were subject to so many peculiar local circ.u.mstances, that only an approximate computation could be arrived at.

Some of the provincial collectors had plantations of their own; others had not, whilst none of them depended entirely upon the produce of their own trees for fulfilling the contracts in the capital.

Coffee was a much more fluctuating concern than hemp, as the purchase-rate (although perhaps low) was determined out of season several months before it was seen how the market would stand for the sale of that coffee; in hemp transactions (there being practically no season for hemp) the purchase-money need only be paid on delivery of the produce by the labourer at rates proportionate to Manila prices, unless the dealer be simply a speculator, in which case, having contracted in Manila to deliver at a price, he must advance to secure deliveries to fulfil his contract. Therefore, in coffee, a provincial collector might lose something on the total year's transactions or he might make an enormous profit, if he worked with his own capital. If he borrowed the capital from Manila dealers--middlemen--as was often the case, then he might make a fortune for his Manila friends, or he might lose another year's interest on the borrowed funds.

In Cavite Province districts there was another way of negotiating coffee speculations. The dealer with capital advanced at, say, 6 or 7 pesos per picul "on joint account up to Manila." The planter then bound himself to deliver so many piculs of coffee of the next gathering, and the difference between the advance rate and the sale price in Manila was shared between the two, after the capitalist had deducted the charges for transport, packing, commission in Manila, etc. All the risk was, of course, on the part of the capitalist, for if the crop failed the small planter had no means of refunding the advance.

On a carefully-managed plantation, a caban of land (8,000 square Spanish yards) was calculated to yield 10.40 piculs (= 12 1/2 cwt.) of clean coffee, or, say, 9 cwt. per acre. The selling value of a plantation, in full growth, was about P250 per caban, or, say, P180 per acre. After 1896 this land value was merely nominal.

The trees begin to give marketable coffee in the fourth year of growth, and flourish best in hilly districts and on highlands, where the roots can be kept dry, and where the average temperature does not exceed 70 Fahr. _Caracolillo_ is found in greater quant.i.ties on the highest declivities facing east, where the morning sun evaporates the superfluous moisture of the previous night's dew.

In the Province of Cavite there appeared to be very little system in the culture of the coffee-tree. Little care was taken in the selection of shading-trees, and pruning was much neglected. Nevertheless, very fine coffee was brought from the neighbourhood of Indan, Silan, Alfonso, and Amadeo. The Batangas bean had the best reputation in Manila; hence the Indan product was sometimes brought to that market and sold as Batangas coffee.

In Batangas the coffee-plant is usually shaded by a tree called _Madrecacao_ (_Gliricidia maculata_)--Tagalog, _Galedupa pungam_. On starting a plantation this tree is placed in rows, each trunk occupying one Spanish yard, and when it has attained two or three feet in height the coffee-shoot is planted at each angle. Between the third and eighth years of growth every alternate shading-tree and coffee-plant is removed, as more s.p.a.ce for development becomes necessary. The coffee-plants are pruned from time to time, and on no account should the branches be allowed to hang over and meet. Around the wealthy town of Lipa some of the many coffee-estates were extremely well kept up, with avenues crossing the plantations in different directions.

At the end of eight years, more or less, according to how the quality of soil and the situation have influenced the development, there would remain, say, about 2,400 plants in each caban of land, or 1,728 plants per acre. Comparing this with the yield per acre, each tree would therefore give 9.33 ounces of marketable coffee, whilst in Peru, where the coffee-tree is planted at an elevation of 5,000 to 6,000 feet above sea-level, each tree is said to yield one pound weight of beans.

In the Philippines the fresh ripe berries, when thoroughly sun-dried, lose an average weight of 52 per cent. moisture.

The sun-dried berries ready for pounding (husking) give an average of 33.70 of their weight in marketable coffee-beans.

It takes _eight_ cabanes measure (_vide_ p. 276) of fresh-picked ripe berries to turn out _one_ picul weight of clean beans.

Owing to the fact that one year in every five gives a short crop, due either to the nature of the plant or to climatic variations, it pays better to collect coffee from the very small growers rather than sink capital in large estates on the _aparcero_ system (q.v.).

The coffee-plant imperatively requires shade and moisture, and over-pruning is prejudicial. If allowed to run to its natural height it would grow up to 15 to 25 feet high, but it is usually kept at 7 to 10 feet. The leaves are evergreen, very s.h.i.+ning, oblong, leathery, and much resemble those of the common laurel. The flowers are small, and cl.u.s.ter in the axils of the leaves. They are somewhat similar to the Spanish jasmine, and being snow-white, the effect of a coffee plantation in bloom is delightful, whilst the odour is fragrant. The fruit, when ripe, is of a dark scarlet colour, and the ordinary coffee-berry contains two semi-elliptic seeds of a h.o.r.n.y or cartilaginous nature glued together and enveloped in a coriaceous membrane; when this is removed each seed is found covered with a silver-grey pellicle.

The _Caracolillo_ coffee-berry contains only one seed, with a furrow in the direction of the long axis, which gives it the appearance of being a geminous seed with an inclination to open out on one side.

In Arabia Felix, where coffee was first planted in the 15th century, and its cultivation is still extensive, the collection of the fruit is effected by spreading cloths under the trees, from which, on being violently shaken, the ripe berries fall, and are then placed upon mats to dry, after which the beans are pressed under a heavy roller.

In the Philippines, women and children--sometimes men--go into the plantations with baskets and pick the berries. The fruit is then heaped, and, in a few days, washed, so that a great portion of the pulp is got rid of. Then the berries are dried and pounded in a mortar to separate the inner membrane and pellicle; these are winnowed from the clean bean, which const.i.tutes the coffee of commerce and is sent in bags to Manila for sale.

The Philippine plantations give only one crop yearly, whilst in the West Indies beans of unequal ripeness are to be found during eight months of the twelve, and in Brazil there are three annual gatherings.

The seed of the _Tobacco-plant_ (_Nicotiana tabac.u.m_) was among the many novelties introduced into the Philippines from Mexico by Spanish missionaries, soon after the possession of the Colony by the Spaniards was an accomplished fact. From this Colony it is said to have been taken in the 16th or 17th century into the south of China, where its use was so much abused that the sale of this so-called noxious article was, for a long time, prohibited under penalty of death.

During the first two centuries of Spanish dominion but little direct attention was paid to the tobacco question by the Government, who only nominally held, but did not a.s.sert, the exclusive right of traffic in this article. At length, in the year 1781, during the Gov.-Generals.h.i.+p of Jose Basco y Vargas (a naval officer), the cultivation and sale of tobacco was formally decreed a State monopoly, which lasted up to the end of the year 1882. In the meantime, it became an important item of public revenue. In 1882 the profits of the Tobacco Monopoly amounted to half the Colony's Budget expenditure.

A few years before that date a foreign company offered to guarantee the Budget (then about P15,000,000), in exchange for the Tobacco Monopoly, but the proposal was not entertained, although in the same year the Treasury deficit amounted to P2,000,000.

By Royal Decree of July 1, 1844, a contract was entered into with the firm of O'Shea & Co., renting to them the Monopoly, but it was suddenly rescinded. The annual profits from tobacco to the Government at that date were about P2,500,000.

GOVERNMENT PROFIT

1840 P2,123,505 1845 2,570,679 1850 3,036,611 1855 3,721,168 1859 4,932,463 1860 over 5,000,000 1869 5,230,581

A bale of tobacco contains 4,000 leaves in 40 bundles (_manos_), of 100 leaves each.