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National Geographic : 1905 Apr
Contents
A REVELATION OF THE FILIPINOS are also many gutta-percha, India-rub ber, and other gum-producing trees, dye and medicinal woods and plants, and .other forest growths, most of which are mentioned in connection with the sub ject of agriculture. The enormous ex tent and wide range of usefulness of Philippine forest products will render them, under the careful management and conservation provided for by law,second only to agricultural products as a source of insular wealth and prosperity. The number of different kinds of trees is not known, but the report of the chief of the Philippine Forestry Bureau for 1902 shows that 747 species of wood were brought to the market during the year ending June 30, 1902. The num ber of useful woods is undoubtedly larger than the number marketed, and in addition the forests contain many trees the woods of which are not used for do mestic or economic purposes. Summarizing the information at hand, it appears that approximately 70 per cent of the area of the archipelago, or 8o,ooo square miles, is forested. The forested area was estimated by Fernando Castro in 1890 at about 48, I 2,920 acres, or 75,150 square miles. This estimate includes all the woodland, public and private, and amounts to 66 per cent of the total area. An official estimate made in 1876 gave an area of about 80,000 square miles. WEALTH OF TIMBER Little is known concerning the stand of timber per acre. The Forestry Bureau has made careful examinations at sev eral places in the islands and has meas ured sample acres containing more than 1o,ooo cubic feet, or ioo,ooo board feet, per acre, and it reports large areas of virgin forest,of which the average stand is 7,000 cubic feet per acre. It is prob able, however, that this is much above the average of the wooded area of the islands; still enough is known to hazard the conjecture that the average stand of timber in the islands may exceed 2,000 cubic feet per acre. If this estimate of average stand is not excessive, the amount of timber in the archipelago is in the neighborhood of I,ooo,ooo million feet B. M., or more than double the amount in the States of Oregon and Washington together. The stumpage value of the above timber to the government, at an aver age of three cents gold per cubic foot, is not far from three billion dollars, and it is easy to foresee that when the lumber industry reaches any considerable mag nitude the receipts from it will form no inconsiderable part of the income of the government. The islands are well supplied with streams having sufficient volume of water for floating logs. Most of these can be made good driving streams by a little work in the way of removing snags and sand bars. It must be remembered, however, that most of the timber in the Philippines is too heavy to float, and that the logs must be buoyed by bamboo poles. It may be discovered, when log ging operations on a large scale are in stituted, that logging railways will be more economical than driving the logs in the streams. Logging is carried on at present on a small scale and with very primitive ap pliances. The logs are dragged out of the woods by carabaos to the railroad or to the streams, down which they are floated by the aid of the bamboo. EXCELLENT COAL IN ABUNDANCE Unless all indications are deceptive, the mineral wealth of the Philippine Islands is very great. Coal, of Tertiary age, of widely differing qualities, from lignite so soft and impure as to be prac tically worthless up to that equal in steam capacity to the best Japanese coal, is found scattered widely over the archi pelago. Indeed, there are few prov inces in which it has not been found. Many of the prospects which on the sur- I47
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