1899 58,389 $1,939,122 1900 109,911 3,113,423 1901 178,232 5,490,958 1902 216,403 6,578,481 1903 307,191 10,061,323 1904 329,825 11,548,814 1905 255,502 7,456,738 1906 138,052 4,375,500 1907 112,749 3,662,493 1908 162,174 5,861,256 1909 137,678 4,250,223 1910 184,620 5,321,962 1911 203,083 6,560,630 1912 260,250 10,569,949 1913 179,205 7,940,857 American influence has already made itself strongly felt on the rice industry and small steel ploughs, of suitable size to be drawn by single animals, are coming into very general use. A steadily increasing amount of rice is harvested with sickles instead of with small bladed knives. Modern threshing machines are rapidly discouraging the employment of the threshing methods of biblical days, and their operation in the large rice producing regions is a good business for persons with limited capital, as the returns are immediate and the investment is small. The customary toll taken for threshing is one-eighth of the output. While under my direction, the Bureau of Agriculture began the introduction of modern threshing machines. The amount of grain obtained from a stack of given size when thoroughly machine-threshed before there had been time for waste was so much greater than that to which the Filipinos had been accustomed that they thought that there must be a deposito of grain hidden away somewhere within the machine, and insisted on sticking their heads into it in search of this supposed source of supply! Many small, mechanically driven hulling machines are now in use and the number of regular rice mills, with up-to-date machinery for hulling and polishing, steadily and quite rapidly increases. The rice industry has at present two great needs: the first is irrigation, the second, careful seed selection. The average Filipino depends directly on rainfall for irrigation water, and although there may be a stream close at hand, he does not trouble to turn it on to his land unless conditions happen to be exceptionally favourable. The result is that dry years cause a very heavy, and largely avoidable, loss to the islands. A dependable supply of irrigation water would make two crops a certainty where one is now more or less of a gamble. The insular government is spending considerable sums on irrigation work, and in my opinion it offers a wide field for profitable private investment.