and model inexpensive houses for dispensaries and demonstrations of house sanitation at many points in the department. An adequate lot well located was purchased, plans and specifications made, and funds provided for the construction of a contagious-diseases hospital at Zamboanga, the work of construction on which will begin in January, 1917. A contagious-diseases hospital is also greatly needed at Jolo, the other port of entry in this department, for which appropriation has been requested. As the department health service passed on October 14, 1916, to the Insular Bureau of Health, further details regarding building construction for hospitals and the public-health service otherwise should be sought in the report of the director of health. There is no provincial building at Malaybalay, the capital of the Province of Bukidnon, the offices of the provincial government being located in the municipal building and otherwise temporarily provided for. It is planned to construct a timber structure, for which materials of excellent quality can be obtained locally at reasonable prices. Some of the materials have already been acquired, final plans and specifications are being prepared, and it is hoped that construction may be begun in 1917. At Zamboanga the provincial government, jointly with the department government, occupies the building constructed for government offices in 1906 by the government of the Moro Province. This building is well located and adapted to its purpose, but the superstructure, which is of timber, is beginning to deteriorate, necessitating constant repairs. While its capacity is taxed to its utmost, no new construction should be necessary for several years to come, unless it be deemed necessary to provide for several offices of representatives of branches of the insular government which are now occupying rented space in privately owned buildings. The provincial government at Jolo is for the present adequately provided for in the building which it occupies jointly with the customs service and municipal government. However, the location within the small walled town is a serious handicap to both the provincial and municipal governments, for which provision must be made as soon as practicable by new structures outside the walled town, where the efficiency of these offices of local government will be increased proportionately with their greater accessibility to the people, most of whom either fear to enter the walled town or abstain from doing so in customary obedience to the prohibition which formerly existed under the Spanish and American military governments. The provincial governments of Davao and Lanao occupy portions of municipal government buildings. Space is inadequate for more than the offices of the respective municipal governments, and it is necessary that provincial government buildings be provided as soon as practicable. The Cotabato provincial government has its offices in a large wooden building constructed by the military authorities many years ago at Cotabato as troop barracks. The lumber used in this building was that most available at the time and of but fair quality. Considerable repairs are constantly necessary, and the building is not adapted to its present use. However, it fairly meets present requirements, and the construction of a provincial government building at Cotabato may be postponed for a few years in view of the other more productive purposes to which available public funds may be devoted, especially the construction of roads and trails and the river improvement hereinbefore discussed. The Agusan provincial government has ample accommodations in a substantial building constructed some years ago for the purpose. The sanitary condition and definite layout of all provincial capitals urgently demand attention. Zamboanga and Butuan now require but little beyond adequate storm-water drains. Jolo and Cotabato require extensive filling to bring the general level of their commercial and closely built residential sections sufficiently above tide water and to assure sanitation, at least, to the extent of storm-water drains. Dansalan, Davao, and Malaybalay require more definite layout, fixing of permanent street lines, the exact determination of public-building sites and grounds with such immediate improvement as sanitation, and the reasonably dignified appearance of public buildings and grounds require, together with storm-water drains and such embellishments as should be given provincial capitals which are the only models of municipal administration ordinarily available to the other local governments within the Province. As stated in previous reports the jurisdiction of the director of public works was extended to all the Provinces of the department on January 1, 1915. Accordingly, all public-work activities during 1916 have been carried on in accordance with the same administrative system which is in force in the regularly organized Provinces. The Provinces of Agusan, Bukidnon, Davao, and Lanao have suffered seriously during the year in their public works undertakings by reason of changes in district engineers. In this connection the following is quoted from the annual report for 1915 as equally applicable until the present time: In order that the most satisfactory results may be had as speedily as possible, it is obvious that district engineers and assistants should be especially selected for assignment to the Provinces of Mindanao-Sulu, and that they be not changed for some years to come, except because of demonstrated unfitness or definite withdrawal from the service. While in the Provinces of Luzon and the Visayas exploration work has long since been concluded, and there is available in the files of the bureau practically all information necessary for the purposes of road location and construction and other problems probable to demand solution by the bureau, and also organized trained labor exists or may easily be assembled for projects, either small or of much magnitude. None of these essential conditions exists in the Provinces of the department which have so recently been taken over by the bureau. Statistics as to expenditures for the entire year 1916 are not now available and can not be had in time to include in this report. Reference for them must be had to the reports of the insular auditor and the director of public works, which are the accounting and administrative centers in which these data are first compiled. Funds provided for expenditure during the year for public works, exclusive of schools, hospitals, etc., pertaining to insular bureaus, comprised the following: Appropriated by Act No. 2543, Philippine Commission... Special allotment by the secretary of commerce and police... Total.... P 435, 000, 00 63,504.00 27,500.00 181, 582. 37 707.586.37 An average of 101,083.77 for each of the seven Provinces, including funds for wharf construction and repairs at ports of entry, which are insular government projects. As compared with the insular aid to the Provinces of MindanaoSulu by special appropriation, per capita and special allotments of P526,004, there was appropriated from the insular treasury for public works in the remainder of the archipelago P2,529,996. On the basis of comparative territorial area the proportionate appropition for Mindanao-Sulu would have been P970,585.60 or P444,581.60 more than the department actually did receive. On the basis of comparative natural resources the appropriation for Mindanao-Sulu should not have been less than that for the remainder of the archipelago. 13. AGRICULTURE. Agricultural production generally throughout Mindanao-Sulu exceeded in 1916 that of any previous year. The popular demand for agricultural loans has given way to that for laborers with which to gather for market the unprecedented production which has rewarded agricultural activities from the largest capitalistic plantations to small individual farms for which the labor of the owner and his family has heretofore been sufficient. This demand for labor the government is undertaking to supply with a view to providing not only wage-paid laborers for the present, but small agricultural proprietors thereafter as has been described in detail elsewhere in this report. While the extraordinary heavy rainfall during a few days in the latter part of January throughout central and northern Mindanao caused extensive damage, not only to areas cultivated in annual food crops but also to permanent plantations of hemp and coconuts, yet the well distributed and almost daily rainfall throughout the remainder of the year resulted in abundant harvests. Every Province has made great advance in agricultural production, as evidenced by the increased shipments of hemp and copra for export and the increased shipments of rice from Cotabato and Lanao and of cattle from Davao and Sulu for consumption elsewhere in the Philippine Islands. Typical of the increased production is that of from 4,000 to 8,000 bales per month in the export of hemp from the Davao Gulf coast, and from 9,000 to 17,000 cavans of rice from Cotabato. Severe losses in rice just harvested or about to be harvested were occasioned in both Cotabato and Lanao by the unseasonal floods of the month of January, yet notwithstanding this their exports of rice exceeded those of any previous year. Coffee is the only agricultural product of which there was a decrease as compared with previous years, this being due to the severe damage caused by extremely unseasonal rains. While locusts have appeared in various localities, they caused no extensive damage during the year. Coincident with the unusual production, prices, especially for hemp and copra, have continued high throughout the year. This coincidence of favorable conditions has enabled planters and small farmers to pay off indebtedness of previous years, to a very great extent, undertake extensions of cultivated areas and other improvements, including in a few instances small irrigation systems. Reported increases in cultivated areas about the close of the year indicated a general average of somewhat more than 30 per cent increase as compared with the last or any preceding year within the recollection of the oldest residents. In this connection it is interesting to note that incomplete statistics thus far received for the year show that there have been brought within government control and definitely settled on agricultural land during 1916 more than 22,000 people who were heretofore at least seminomadic and living in the more inaccessible mountains. Officers of the department government, provincial governors, their deputies and municipal executives have made agricultural propaganda a principal feature of their program of work during 1916. As stated in the chapter of this report headed Public instruction," the curriculum of the public schools, especially in Mohammedan and pagan communities, gives especial emphasis to practical instruction in agriculture. It is planned still further to accentuate this spec al effort directed at agricultural development by the employment at the end of the college year of graduates of the Government College of Agriculture at Los Baños, securing, if possible, at least one such young man for appointment as agricultural assistant or deputy to each provincial governor. The academic and technical training in tropical agriculture these young men have received during their school and college courses should prove excellent preparation for practical training in public administration in Provinces like these. in all of which agricultural development is of such immediate importance and stands in so great need of technical and scientific aids. Some of these young men should later become highly efficient officers in the public service as provincial governors. The opportunities also offered for agricultural undertakings on private account, after the experience of a few years in government service in these Provinces, also offers an objective which should make especially attractive the career thus opened to these young men. The undertakings of government as to agriculture and all activities which fall within the term "agriculture" in its most comprehensive sense are directed exclusively to the improvement and extension of cultivation of those crops which past experience has demonstrated to be well adapted to the locality in which the work is carried on. Experimental and research work have been merely casual and incidental, involving no appreciable expenditure of public funds. The introduction of methods and machinery of undemonstrated value in these regions as been left to the insular government in Luzon and Visayas and to private initiative rather than encouraged by local government advice and example. It is a matter of demonstrated experience that great increase in the efficiency of labor may be accomplished by inducing the plowman to use a team of two work animals instead of a single bullock or carabao, while the use of steam or oil tractors and large gang plows under existing conditions is of uncertain advantage The government has constantly urged the planting of food crops, especially maize and palay, for political as well as economical reasons, having in mind the great importance of local and national independence in food supply. A special effort has also been made to encourage the planting of fruit trees, kapok, or tree cotton, and other economic perennials or trees as secondary or incidental agricultural resources, the cultivation of which occasions no appreciable encroachment upon time and strength required for the seasonal activities of principal crops, and the products being not only important additions at least to the variety of food supply and material for household use, and also in case of surplus for sale, the proceeds afford material additions to the family income and the total production of the Province and community. Early in 1916 there was secured from the Government College of Agriculture a young man who had specialized in horticulture, and under the direction of the department superintendent of schools, with the assistance of the provincial government, he has had marked success in the establishment of a government fruit-tree nursery at Jolo. There are now growing in this nursery more than 43,000 fruit trees, including mangosteen, durian, and marang, which are known to thrive well on that island. These trees will be available and should be ready for distribution at the beginning of the next rainy season. The plan is to distribute them to the parents or school children and to other persons who will transplant and care for them under supervision, as well as to provide for appropriate fruit plantations on government grounds at constabulary and school sites. This employee in addition to the development and care of his tree nursery is devoting considerable time to exploration of the island and study of individual bearing trees for the purpose of securing seeds and bud wood for use in propagation of the best types of the different local varieties of fruit as well as to secure additional information regarding soils and other conditions most favorable to the growth and production of these trees, as well as regarding plant diseases, pests, and other matters of practical value to this branch of horticulture. While reasonably complete statistics as to areas of agricultural land occupied and cultivated by natives are not yet available, similar data regarding land holdings by. Americans and foreigners in Mindanao-Sulu are now compiled and set forth in the following statement which covers the seven Provinces of the department: There were at the close of the year 5,681 laborers employed on these plantations, of whom 687 were Japanese and the remainder natives. There are about 70 Americans employed on plantations. In addition to the foregoing there are 47 Americans at the agricultural colony at Momuñgan, Lanao Province, who occupy a corresponding number of homesteads. |