Note 3 — Chapter XXV · ILOILO AND PANAY.

Sugar, as an article of export, may be said to be as yet comparatively in the germ. By an abstract taken from notes of province cargoes given daily by the Boletin Oficial of Manila, it is seen that nearly 12,000 peculs went forward last year from this province to Manila, of which it may be estimated that about 3,000 were brought over from the Isla de Negros, and sent on to the capital as Iloilo sugar. So great has been the stimulus given by the high prices for this article which have lately ruled, that the quantity exported from Iloilo alone will not fall short of 20,000, or say, with contributions from Negros, about 25,000 peculs, or nearly 1,600 tons; and, were the present rapid extension of planting to continue in the same ratio for three years, the amount exportable would in that time, as there is no want of available land, reach about 80,000 peculs, or 5,000 tons, subject to further augmentation from other sources, should foreign vessels commence loading at this port.3 At the island of Negros, from whence the voyage occupies from six to ten hours, the soil of which is eminently fertile, and which possesses immense tracts particularly adapted for the growth of sugar, a similar extension of culture is in progress, in spite of the great drawback of the comparative sparseness of its population, which alone prevents it from yielding sugar and hemp in larger proportion than any other province in the Philippines. At present Negros produces about 14,000 peculs, or nearly 900 tons, of sugar, of which more than two-thirds go to Manila direct, and the remainder by way of Iloilo. There is a further available source from whence sugar (in the event of foreign vessels loading at Iloilo) would be derivable at the contiguous island of Cebú, which produces upwards of 90,000 peculs, or 5,695 tons, for the Manila market, and is within easy distance of two to three days’ sail from Iloilo.