^ <; ■^- • 1908 \l-^^ Government of the Philippine Islands. Department of the Interior. BUREAU OF FORESTRY— CIRCULAR NO. 2. Manila, P. I., May 28, 1908. USEFUL INFORMATION CONCERNING PHILIPPINE PUBLIC FORESTS AND POSSIBILITIES FOR THEIR EXPLOITATION. Although the future prosperity of the Philippine Islands depends mainly on their agricultural development, yet it is generally recognized that the proper exploitation of the extensive Philippine forests will add exceedingly to the future prosperity and also aid greatly in agricultural development. More than one-half of the land area of 120,000 square miles in the Islands is forested; that is, covered with a tree growth. Of the 60,000 square miles of forest, 40,000 square miles are in the more thinly settled Islands of Mindoro, Samar, Palaw^an, and Mindanao, or about 80 per cent of their total area. It must be admitted, however, that large parts of this timbered area can not be considered commercial forest by lumbermen. Scattered stands of small unmerchantable trees and inaccessible mountain forests cover considerable areas. Estimating conservatively, there are 25,000 square miles, or 16 million acres, of timber which can and will be exploited on a reasonably large scale. An average yield of 2,500 l)oard feet of mer- chantable timber per acre on this area is a conservative estimate, giving a total supply of 40 billion board feet. The total annual cut in the Islands is now less than 50 million feet or only about one-eight of 1 per cent of the probable supply. This cut is an insignificant item of the annual growth in these forests. The forests under conservative treatment should furnish an annual supply of at least 400 million feet of mature timber and be improved by so doing. The timbers in the Islands include a great variety ranging from Pine and Calantas, or soft tropical cedar, to the extremely heavy and hard Dungon and Mancono. In general, Philippine woods are hard and heavy, yet there are not lacking abundant supplies of light and strong construction timbers which can well be substituted for 70580 the White Pine, Oregon Pine^ and California Redwood, which are im- ported. Lauan is a fairly soft, strong wood and can well take the place of Oregon Pine and California Redwood. Apitong, harder, heavier, and stronger than Lanan, is equal to Oregon Pine and Longleaf Pine for gen- eral construction. Lauan and Apitong and the other species of the same family, Dipterocarpaceae, are not only the most abundant timber occurring in the Archipelago but they are very large trees. Timber up to 90 feet in length can be secured from them. They are also excellent finishing woods, equal to most American woods used for interior finish. The following comparative figures of weight and strength are taken from Bulletin No. 4, Bureau of Forestry, ' 'Mechanical Tests, Properties, and Uses of Thirty- Four Philippine Woods:" Name. Lauan Oregon Pine „ California Redwood . Apitong Longleaf Pine Giiijo White Oak Pignut Hickory Dongon. Yacal Molave Locality. Philippine Islands . United States do Philippine Islands . United States Philippine Islands . United States do Philippine Islands . do do.„ Compression along the grain. 12.4 12 13.3 14.4 15 14.6 12 12 10.7 13.4 12.7 S o o 6,180 5,700 5, 560 7,250 6,900 7,940 8, 500 10, 900 9,420 9,220 8, 330 Cross-bending. 10.4 12 12.3 14 15 13.7 12 12 11.6 15. 6 10.4 bo O 03 olish are required. Such woods are rapidly disappearing in the United States. The difficulty has l>een that there were no lumbermen in a position to supply a strong demand. Consecjuently the fine Philippine woods are still unknown in the United States. The lumberman, however, who now contemplates luml)ering in the Philippine Islands can not figure entirely on what the market may be, but must de])end mostly on wluit it is now. He must feel that he can secure his share of the local trade. The following are the prevailing prices in Manila for some of the principal native woods, Oregon Pine, and Cali- fornia Redwood: Price (in gold) per 1,000 feet B. M. Lauan $30. 00-$40. 00 Apitong 35. 00- 50. 00 Guijo „ 49.00- 70.00 Molave __,_„ 107.50-150.00 Yaeal 80. 00-100. 00 Red Narra . 125. 00-150. 00 Tanguile - .___.__ 47.50- 60.00 Ipil- 90.00-112.00 Oregon Pine 30.00 California Redwood „_ 47.00 It is evident from these prices that a lumber company properly equipped and managed and operating on a suitable timber tract should be able to deliver many kinds of native lumber in Manila at a cost about one-half of these prices. Cheap labor and low stumpage ofifset the increased ex- pense of machinery and management in the Philippines. There should always be an opportunity for small operators in supplying the local provincial demands^ but the growth of a lumber industry worthy of the Islands will depend on the investment of consideral)]e capital. Such lumbermen should be prepared to handle the lumber in all stages from the forest to the market. In this way they can compete successfully, not only in the Philippines but also in Chinese, Australian, and even American markets. PRESENT LUMBERING OPERATIONS. Lumbering at present is mostly carried on in a crude, inefficient way by numerous small cutters, few of which cut a significant amount. There is also a great waste in logging. Skidding and hauling are done with carabaos, which are poor draft animals for this purpose. Several carabaos are needed to move an ordinary log, and much of the timber is too large to be hauled by them. In this kind of logging the requirements for cheap logging are lacking, and the outi)Ut is necessarily small. Since the American occupation, the number of small sawmills has greatly increased, yet a large part of the native timber used in the Islands is wh i]) - sawn. In all there are thirty-one sawmills in the Phili|)pines. These do not manufacture more than 250,000 board feet of lumber per day. Of this, 90,000 feet can be cut by the five Manila mills. This indicates well the condition of the lumber industry at ])rcsent. Extc^isivc lum- bering is only beginning in thel^liilippine Islands. Yet tliere are a few operations now l)eing successfully carried on which indicate to lunibermen the possil)ilities in the Pnilippine forests. LARGE OPERATIONS. The operations of a company in Negros Occidental are morc^ extensive than those of any other company in the Islands. It is ofx^ating on a tract of 69 square miles, 60 square miles of which are covcr(»d with an unusually heavy stand of timl)er averaging about 32,000 board feet of merchantal)le lumber per acre. The mill, which has recently been com- |)leted, is a modern band mill of the l)est typc^ with a capacity of 100,000 board feet and should manufacture at least 60,000 board feet per day when a mill crew has been trained. This company is able to sell Lauan and Apitong in Manila at a lower price than that prevailing for Oregon Pine or California Red Wood. Its oi)erati()n is an examj)l(* of what can be done in the Philippines by a well-e(jui|)ped company operating with 8 modern methods. Donkey engines are employed to skid the timber to a logging railroad on which the logs are hauled to the mills. The com- pany's steamers and barges carry the lumber to Manila, Iloilo, and Cebu. SUITABLE TIMBER TRACTS AVAILABLE. In pursuance of its policy to do everything i)ossible to stimulate the forest industries of the Philippine Islands, the Bureau of Forestry, during the past two years, has located and roughly mapped timber tracts suitable for large operations. It is now in a position to give definite information regarding some such tracts to prospective lumbermen. In northern Negros are 60 square miles of dense virgin forest, similar in species and equal in yield to the forest of the Insular Lumber Com- pany which adjoins it. This forest covers the slopes of Mount Silay, ranging in elevation from 200 to 4,000 feet above the level of the sea. About 40 square miles lay below 1,000 feet and are an execellent lum- bering proposition for a company with a large capital. The new railroad in Negros is planned to pass within 3 miles of the edge of the forest. A company would build its sawmill on the line of this railroad, run its own logging railroad into the forest, and ship its lumber to a port on the coast to be loaded for Cebu, Iloilo, Manila, or Hongkong and New York. On the 40 square miles most accessible is a total stand of about 800 million board feet of merchantable lumber, enough to supply a mill cutting 50,000 feet per day more than fifty years. It is a Dipterocarp forest, that is, composed mostly of Almon, Lauan, Apitong, and Tanguile. In the well-forested region of northeastern Mindoro is another suitable tract of some 200 square miles. It is located west of Lake Naujan and about 13 miles from Calapan, the provincial capital. This also is a Dip- terocarp forest comj)Osed mainly of Almon, Lavian, Tanguile, and Apitong. A rough survey showed an average stand of about 20, 000 board ieet per acre. Logs may be rafted across the lake and dow^n the river to the coast or a tramway built direct to Cakpan, which is about twelve hours by steamer to Manila. On the northern half of the peninsula of Bataan, across the bay from Manila, is another forest tract suitable for a large lumbering operation. Although logging is much more difficult here than on the other tracts mentioned, the proximity to Manila makes it a good proi)osition. OBTAINING A TRACT OF TIMBER. The public forests of the Philippine Islands are not sold, but are exploited under a license system. Small cutters generally operate under ordinary yearly licenses for definite small areas. In the case of large operations involving the investment of considerable capital in permanent enterprises, exclusive licenses are granted for periods up to twenty years for definite large tracts of timber, which licenses are practically equivalent to concessions. 9 Applications for exclusive licenses on tracts not exceeding 2, 500 acres in area are forwarded by the Director of Forestry^ after due investigation, to the Secretary of the Interior with recommendations. The Secretary may then grant an exclusive license if he decides that it is in the public interest. For an area of more than 2,500 acres when the Secretary of the Interior is convinced that the granting of an exclusive license is in the public interest^ proposals for bids to secure the said privilege are published in the Official Gazette and other newspapers. Tlie license wall then be granted to the highest and best bidder who offers to install the most complete and efficient plant most promptly and to do the greatest amount of annual development work and who furnislies the best bond as a guaranty of performance. The right to reject any and all bids is expressly reserved, and in general it may be stated that no exclusive license will be approved except upon a reasonable showing that the licensee will be able within the period fixed in his license actually to exploit the resources of the forest tract covered by it. The man who means l)usiness must show the Government that he really intends to develop the tract for which he s(Kaires an exclusive license and will protect the interests of the public in the concession. The Bureau of Forestry is now in a position to assist lumbermen desiring to locate here. Some have recently made applications for ex- clusive licenses for large tracts and have found the maps and information furnished them by the Bureau of great value. Trained foresters with two or more years of experience in tlie Plulippine forests will be placed at the service of lumbermen to assist them in finding suitable forest tracts. The available publications of the Bureau will be sent on a})|)lication to interested parties. o I