The milk in the coconut: the money too

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Part of The American Chamber of Commerce Journal

Title: The milk in the coconut: the money too
Language: English
Source: The American Chamber of Commerce Journal Volume 7 (Issue No.9) September 1927
Year: 1927
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Fulltext: 16 THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL September, 1927, THE HEART OF A GOOD COCKTAIL Kuenzle & Streiff, Inc. SOLE DISTRIBUTORS 343 T. Pinpin Phone 113 The cotton spinning industry continues active, and enough orders, are on hand to keep most of the mills busy until well into the Fall. Con sumption of raw cotton during June amounted to 732,671 bales including linters, compared with 588,920 bales in June last year, while spindle activity averaged 109.2 per cent of single shift capacity compared with 88-4 per cent in June last year. Despite large production, June shipments, according to the Association of Cotton Textile Merchants of New York, amounted to 96.5 per cent of production, stocks on hand at the close of June were 39.6 per cent below those of June, 1926, and unfilled orders 163.4 per cent higher. The Milk in the Coconut: The Money Too Nature in her infinite variety is a lovely lazy goddess with an irrepressible penchant for the tropics, and in the Philippines alone she has distributed close upon 10,000 species of plant life, to say nothing of the myriad varieties of these species that men from Fray Manuel Blanco . down to the present time—characterized by Merill’s and Brown’s work at the bureau of science—have been able to name and catalogue. But despite all competition the coconut stands perhaps preeminent as the benefactor of man kind in this favored land. The coconut drew Dr. T. H. Pardo de Tavera’s keenest shafts: accounting for the languid ambitions of his people, he ascribed them to the ease with which life here may be sustained. Nature, he thought, had been kind to the point of cruelty, causing the soil to burst into fertile harvests with so little need of cultivation. He enumerated the uses of the coconut palm: Its trunk makes the posts for cottages, which its fronds shade from the sun and shield from storm. Or it bridges a creek and makes an excellent substitute for lumber in many ways. The milk of the coconut Better designed Glasses EYEGLASSES can either lend to or detract from the personality as every one knows. CLARK & CO., Optometrists, have had a quarter of a century’s experience in expert fitting of “better glasses.’’ Our' extensive line of new styles enables us to assist you in making a tasteful selection. Always the best in quality but never higher in price is a pleasant drink, mildly medicinal. The meat is food, while the oil from it has a dozen household uses from gloss for the hair to lard for the skillet. The shell is fuel, and may be easily carved into ornaments and utensils, taking a high polish which it permanently retains. Still there remains the coir, in the husk, suitable for everything in the way of cordage from a slender yarn or twine to the hangman’s rope, and even for a mat upon which the hangee may wipe his feet in order not to defile the gallows’ steps. It also makes the peasant a raincoat. The midribs of fronds rival reeds for making baskets. Moreover, the coconut soon mounts high above the plants around it and thereafter re quires no cultivation. It outlives the child that pokes out a place for its first tender sprout in the garden, and from the age of six or seven The Philippine Guaranty Company, Incorporated (Accepted by all the Bureaus of the Insular Government) Executes bonds of all kinds for Customs, Immigration and Internal Revenue. DOCUMENTS SURETYSHIPS For Executors, Administrators, Receivers, Guardians, etc. We also write Fire and Marine Insurance ow rates iberal conditions ocal investments oans on real estate repayable by monthly or quarterly instal ments at low interest Call or write for particulars Room 403, Filipinas Bldg. P. O. Box 128 Manila, P. I. Mftr’a. Tel. 2211 , Main Office Tel. 441 IN RESPONDING TO ADVERTISEMENTS PLEASE MENTION THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL September, 1927 THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL 17 PHILIPPINE COCONUT OIL EXPORTS Fears Kilos Vah.e 1907 819,625 1*203,530 1908 2,852,110 684,560 1909 — — 1910 63 32 1911 — — 1912 660 80 1913 5,010,429 2,292,678 1914 11,943,329 5,238,366 1915 13,464,169 5,641,003 1916 16,091,169 7,851,469 1917 45,198,415 22,818,294 1918 115,280,847 63,328,317 1919 139,942,612 77,571,405 73,719,504 1920 46,537,773 1921 90,292,242 32,103,036 1922 107,208,191 31,468,971 1923 89,183,289 28,133,164 1924 111,628,803 37,622,061 1925 104,127,687 39,640,377 1926 117,290,853 44,690,433 years, when it is said to be mature, no month passes in which it does not yield some ripened nuts. To have a fiesta, it is only necessary for the peasant to candy the meat of a coconut and ferment a measure of its sap, drawn off in any abundance the feast may require in a bamboo joint that fills during the night. The peasant calls this wine tuba, and in the coconut provinces COCONUT ESTIMATES Year Ending June 30, 1926 Pr.„ cJltiraled Gathered Produced Hectares Thousands Piculs Abra............ 20 65 — Agusan........ 3,510 10,222 39,160 Albay........... 19,300 61,960 198,900 Antique....... 2,170 4,995 16,420 Bataan........ 90 158 — Batanes....... 100 114 — Batangas.. . 5,230 17,320 54,090 Bohol....... '. . 10,960 54,607 216,660 Bukidnon. . . 40 41 10 Bulacan....... 120 190 — Cagayan... 1,010 1,288 — Cam. Norte. 10,280 18,793 57,010 Cam. Sur. . . 8,840 37,929 114,250 Capiz........... 9,540 27,987 109,730 Cavite.......... 3,940 8,680 14,230 Cebu............ 25,440 127,626 451,140 Cotabato.. . 4,470 2,435 3,870 Davao.......... 10,790 13,768 48,500 Ilocos Norte. 200 323 — Ilocos Sur.. . 460 2,158 1,850 Iloilo........... 7,830 16,527 52,570 Isabela......... 70 124 — Laguna........ 67,680 267,050 829,470 Lanao.......... 3,130 6,605 23,330 La Union. . . 1,080 2,661 6,920 Leyte........... 19,010 66,600 255,360 Marinduque. 10,880 31,171 141,470 Masbate. . . . 5,980 17,264 66,270 Mindoro.... 11,950 18,697 63,560 Misamis. . . . 28,440 127,064 507,920 Mountain. . . 70 48 — Nueva Ecija 180 310 — Nueva Vizca 60 54 — Occ. Negros. 5,100 26,596 100,360 Or. Negros.. 9,300 48,547 183,970 Palawan.... 2,600 6,799 23,190 Pampanga... 10 28 — Pangasinan.. 9,410 16,047 55,680 Rizal........... 120 17 Romblon.. . . 9,520 26,927 106,420 Samar.......... 23,100 75,228 300,290 Sorsogon.. . . 7,360 22,718 75,690 3,860 7,804 27,230 Surigao........ 5,260 32,883 131,690 Tarlac.......... 190 608 450 Tayabas.... 115,940 350,363 1,268,780 Zambales... . 1,040 2,677 8,640 Zamboanga.. 19,350 65,303 225,620 Phil. Islands 485,030 1,627,379 5,780,700 DESICCATED AND SHREDDED COCONUT EXPORTS Fears Kilos Pesos 1922 960,389 419,348 1923 4,349,152 1,806,247 1924 8,133,951 3,197,119 1925 12,523,211 5,217,746 1926 14,327,791 5,515,315 he is much addicted to it. If he wishes he may distill it, of course. The Spanish government created the tuba industry into a government monopoly, failing of its hopes; but the American government resorted to an internal revenue act—thus squelching the small producer, like England squelched country-made ale, and ushering in the day of the opulent distiller manufacturer. Tavera’s reflections may have been right; one suspects, however, that he spoke with his tongue in his cheek, as he always so delighted to do; he was wise in his generation and could not but have perceived that tropical sloth is more a symptom than a cause, and that the cure is more wants and more ways of supplying what is wanted. The cure is division of labor, abandonment of feudalism. The native lord of a coconut manor basks in the enjoyment of a great retinue of peasants dwelling in his village and bound to his fields; but he is coming to see that he enjoys little else. He sells a great bulk of copra (dried coconut meat, for making oil) during a year, the indentured peasants having patiently made it for him, but when he sums up the cost of his year’s operations he often finds he has made little profit. One planter averaged up his books for ten years, and found he had made no more than a peso, fifty cents, per picul of copra one year with another. But Americans, and Filipinos who counsel with them, are making a great deal more. Plant er O’Brien, down on the Samar coast, says it is difficult not to make money in the industry, and I OXYGEN Electrolytic Oxygen 99% pure HYDROGEN Electrolytic Hydrogen 99% pure ACETYLENE Dissolved Acetylene for all purposes WELDING Fully Equip ped Oxy-Ace tylene Weld ing Shops BATTERIES Prest-O-Lite Electric Stor age Batteries Philippine Acetylene Co. 281 CALLE CRISTOBAL MANILA PHILIPPINE COPRA EXPORTS Quantity and Value Years K ilos Value 1907 58,622,437 P9.568.302 1908 97,494,971 12,117,772 1909 109,033,203 15,345,730 1910 120,483,808 21,278,098 1911 142,147,546 26,039,124 1912 142,792,929 28,366,932 1913 82,219,363 19,091,448 1914 87,344,695 15,960,540 1915 139,092,902 22,223,109 1916 72,277,164 14,231,941 1917 92,180,326 16,654,301 1918 55,061,736 10,377,029 1919 25,094,027 8,839,376 1920 25,803,044 7,433,741 1921 150,335,314 26,146,913 1922 173,051,930 28,206,146 1923 207,131,379 38,493,998 1924 156,761,823 30,703,764 1925 146,708,639 31,737,405 1926 174,021,287 37,173,465 that that coast alone had 1*2,000,000 from its copra last year. The Journal does not have his figures, but it has others, and it may be said that methods of growing coconuts and producing copra are in practice in the Philippines by which the cost does not reach three pesos the picul, the product never selling under eight pesos. No other farm crop can top this, surely; and it is hoped that readers will forgive the brief repe tition from the June issue. Tables supplementing the text will be found. They cover 20 years and are from the customs bureau. With the market in the United States, how well the industry does. Lately, too, ad vantaged by a tariff of 3-1 / 2 cents gold per pound, the queen of all coconut products is being exten sively manufactured in and nearby Manila, also at Zamboanga, where the late Dean C. Wor cester opened a plant which is now under the management of his son. This product is desic cated coconut, the icing for the cakes mothers used to make and now usually buy from tlje bakers, and the principal constituent, aside from sugar, of delectable bonbons and the more vulgar coconut bars. It is said that the methods still in vogue in the older fields devoted to the making of desiccated coconut (which is simply the fresh coconut meat shredded or flaked and dehydrated so as to preserve its freshness) are not altogether pro vocative of appetite for the product. Manufac turers in the Philippines, on the other hand, have been at pains to utilize applied science, which is to say machinery and thorough sani tation, in their factories from river or rail landing to the shipping room; and no food product, as a A QUIET CHARITY The Daughters of the American Revolution are a small chapter in Manila, yet they have established one of the islands best permanent charities. This is largely the result of the per sistent offort of the late Mrs. T. S. Holt, who was state regent for the Philippines and the organizer of the Philippine chapter. She died in Cali fornia last spring. The charity the chapter has endowed is a scholarship for nurses; the fund is S20.000 and the nurse enjoying the scholarship is maintained by the interest. Selection alter nates between Mary J. Johnston Memorial and St. Luke’s hospitals. This year a girl is going from St. Luke’s. The course is postgraduate work in America. Miss Damiana Dolarica, from the memorial hospital, returned to Manila this year after studying nearly four years in America, living with Mrs. Holt in Pennsylvania while she completed her high school course in order to matriculate in the nursing colleges. She is employed in the public welfare bureau, supervising welfare work. IN RESPONDING TO ADVERTISEMENTS PLEASE MENTION THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL 18 THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL September, 1927 consequence, excels their desiccated coconut in cleanliness, for it is clean as roller-mill flour. The United States is their market, just as it is the market for coconut oil from the Philip pines, and practically all of the copra. Hoover’s department has just announced, indeed, that the crushing mills of America are dependent upon the Philippine copra crop. It looks that way. Observe how America’s demands enrich Philippine coconut growers. In 1907 the islands had less than 1*10,000,000 from their copra and oil; America did not require fats from sources overseas at that time to the extent she does now. But last year, her demands having greatly increased meantime, the islands got nearly 1’82,000,000 for their copra and oil, and 1’5,Mount Mayon: Camp Daraga in Foreground: This Southeastern Region of Luzon Is a Fertile Coconut and AbacA Section 515,315 for their desiccated coconut. Al together they had. nearly nine times as much for their coconut products last year as they had for them in 1907. And now, with the desiccated industry but five years old, a new division of labor is taking place: an American chemical company is beginning to manufacture charcoal from coconut shell, which is found to excel as a filtering medium and was first used by the American army in the World War in the gas masks for soldiers—it is so remarkably absorbant of gases. One of the tables shows the production of copra last year by provinces. This one is furnished by the bureau of agriculture. Of the 48 provinces, 36 produce copra; Bukidnon produces but ten piculs a year, not worth count ing, but the 35 others produce considerable quantities. Coconut production, then, is more widespread than abaca production, far more widespread than sugar production. At the same time there are well defined coconut regions, Laguna-Tayabas, the Bikol provinces, Misamis, Leyte, Bohol and Cebu. Take the total, for instance, a production of 5,780,700 piculs: From Laguna alone came 829,470 piculs, from Tayabas 1,268,780, from Misamis 507,920, from Cebu 451,140; and other provinces from each of which came more than 100,000 piculs are Agusan, Camarines Sur, Capiz, Marinduque, Occidental Negros, Oriental Negros, Romblon, Samar, Surigao and Zamboanga. The area of the Philippines now in coconuts is 485,030 hectares or about 1,200,000 acres; the total number of palms may be roughly put at 50 million; but those tapped for wine do not bear fruit and it would still be necessary to note the production and value of tuba, besides the domestic con sumption of coconuts and their products, before one could arrive at the approximate value of the entire crop. Plantings range from 80 to 120 palms per hectare. Wonders of the coconut never cease. Drive along any coast where they are growing—they love the coast, too, and hug the very shores of tropic seas—and one sees the stately trunks bent toward the prevailing winds, never away from them; and the roots always look as if they would easily give way, yet they never do. Ty phoons may strip the tops and crack or twist the tough trunks, if the typhoons are very strong indeed, but the roots keep their fast hold on the soil. There are structural reasons for this, of course; and all these surprising attributes are but earnest of still other surprises in store for man when he applies science to the coconut. Having begun to do this not so long ago, much remains to be done; and when the laboratory has done it all, still there remains the business of adapting what may be learned to the ends of commerce. The bureau of commerce and industry has just reported that some Dutchman in Holland has contrived a machine to spin coconut fiber, the coir that makes up the husk. If the process is commercially practicable, as it is said to be, tremble then all ye who are in jute in India. This coconut fiber is tough, pliable and resilient, being first rate mattress and upholstering ma terial, and it is light, so that it floats upon a water surface even in the gross form of a cable or tow line. Also, impregnated somewhat with the oil of the nut of which it forms the outer protection in nature, it is quite impervious to moisture. It dyes excellently. If it can be spun into yarns economically, then these yams will make into the sacks and burlaps for which jute is exclusively utilized now; and whereas jute must be cultivated, coir is merely an abund ant by-product of coconut production. The drawback in the Philippines heretofore to the utilization of coir commercially has been the retting, a hand-labor process; and Phil ippine labor, cheap as it is, has been too expen sive to employ in the tedious work. The Dutch man’s machine is said to clean the fiber as well as spin it, segments of husk go in and bundles of yarn come out. Division of labor, this is, with a vengeance. And what a comment upon India is the fact just stated, that in the Philippines labor costs too much to employ it upon retting coconut fiber. An expert at the bureau of agriculture imparts the information that in the feudal system under which the bulk of Phil ippine coconuts are grown, 500 palms are as signed to a family of peasants. An average yield of 40 nuts per palm per year may, he thinks, be calculated, giving a yield of 20,000 nuts per year from the 500 palms. Converted into copra, this amounts to some 115 piculs; and when eight pesos is taken as the average price per picul, the crop is seen to fetch 1’920. The peasants’ obligation ends with the preparation of the copra, hauling off to market is for the account of the landlord. The peasants’ share on areas of lighter yields is reported to be a third of the crop, which would be an average income of 1’306.67 per year; but where yields are heavier the peasants’ share is reduced to a seventh part of the harvest, which may give them about the same income per family. (They were wont to receive a half of the crop in former years, but as prices have advanced and transportation costs have been reduced by systems of modem roads and the extensions of the railway, they have been unable to hold their own against the land lords, who have readjusted the apportionment of the crop.) If upon this basis Philippine labor is too expensive to employ at retting co conut fiber, what must be the low standard of living among the peasants of India, where the preparation of the fiber is an established industry. Conjuring the possibilities of the thrifty Dutchman’s machine and what it may ulti mately do to the jute industry, one can not refrain from reflections upon England’s current diffi culties, which have by no means come singly. The machine will, of course, be as available to Englishmen as to others, but the threatened inroads upon the jute industry would be suffi ciently disturbing, if they ever became effective, since jute, like Manila hemp in the Philippines, has been in an independent position as a natural monopoly from the beginning of the time when the west found practical uses for it. And though plentiful acreages of coconuts are under the Union Jack, the Philippines, growing about one coconut in three of those that reach the woild’s markets, are in the best position of all to benefit by inventions applying science and the rational division of labor to the preparation of coir. In India and the Dutch East Indies the problem is to keep people employed at anything by which they may sustain life, and machinery lays off hands whether other work awaits them or not. But in the Philippines social conditions are not dissimilar in their rough outline to those prevail ing in the United States. It becomes advan tageous to employ machinery, and something other than the devil’s mischief may always be found for idle hands to do. The feudal lord who barely scrapes through the year by abandon ing his lands to the care of an ignorant encargado and peasant families who are tenants-atwill, is more and more out of date. At last self-interest makes him too turn to machinery, or the mortgage takes him and a better chap takes his place in the manor house. Given the profits that are actually possible in coconut farming, this gentle process will gradually be accentuated—to the improvement of society. Coconuts are not therefore the bane, they are one of the greatest blessings of the Philippines— since there is the American market on the op posite side of the Pacific, and ships to haul, mills to crush and press, and railways to dis tribute the product and its manifold manufac tures. Taxes? Plentiful they are. They are not enough to retard the coconut industry, yet the islands pay dearly for being overgoverned. “The annual cost of the Insular Government alone equals the total annual export value of coconut oil, copra, copra meal and other coconut prod ucts.” The quotation is from Governor Gil more (acting), in a statement showing that selfreliant governments only shelter self-reliant people, that a people habitually in debt can’t have a government out of debt, and that the measure of the competence of the government is the measure of the economic status of the citizens corpposinfe it. If any young man with three or four hectares of land suitable for plant ing coconuts will plant it up and nurse it into bearing, he can by this means answer this clarion call and make himself an independent individual able to raise and educate a family. Up to the present the milk of the coconut has a value as illusory as the milk of human kind ness. It is as stubborn as the squeal of the hog, no use has been found for it by the manufacturers either of desiccated coconut or of oil and edible products. In the making of copra the milk emptied out of the halved nuts is poured back upon the fields, and at the factories it trickles into drains carrying it into the river. It is just a grateful beverage when taken fresh. Some thing about the coconut had, it seems, to be comparatively useless, in order to make the truth believable; and the milk is it. Still, if patiently boiled down it yields a little sugar, but its saccharine content is very low. The milk can also be converted into a dye, which is fast.
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