7°. Que se presentan más trabajadores de los que se necesitan y que se van cuando les parece sin que estén obligados por anticipos de dinero ni por ningún otro medio á permanecer al servicio del Sr. Carpenter.

Y para que conste, por verdad lo firmo en Manila á 28 de Octubre de 1910 ANTONIO MABCIAL

Cédula personal # G 98176.
Expedida en Manila, Julio 9, 1910.

Subscribed and sworn to before me this twenty-eighth day of October, 1910 [SEAL.]

[STAMP.]

My commission expires Dec. 31, 1910.

THOMAS CARY WELCH, Notary Public in & for Manila, P. I.

Mr. HAMILTON. Is the constabulary largely composed of Filipinos! Mr. WORCESTER. Exclusively so, so far as soldiers and noncommis sioned officers are concerned, and a number of the commissioned officers. Mr. PARSONS. What proportion of the commissioned officers are American?

Mr. WORCESTER. A large proportion of them are still American. Mr. MADISON. When application is made for public lands, does the applicant take possession immediately on making his application and before it is granetd?

Mr. WORCESTER. We have no objection

Mr. MADISON. Then those who make application for lease, like these employees of the Government did, take possession of the land and occupy it and are recognized to have a certain possessory right, is not that true?

Mr. WORCESTER. They would be, in that event, recognized as having a possessory right as against others.

Mr. MADISON. What effort is made to close up these transactions and grant the applications? What time generally expires between the making of an application and the granting or execution of the lease!

Mr. WORCESTER. The effort is a personal one on the part of the officers and employees of the bureau of lands; we urge them to complete the transactions, because we are anxious to rent the lands, but we have never, to my knowledge, dispossessed any person who was in occupation and engaged in the cultivation of public land, unless it was in connection with some public enterprise; but you will understand that they must not so hold it in such manner as to interfere with other people, and if this question should arise we should of course be obliged to settle it.

Mr. MADISON. Why don't you do that in the case of the assistant director of public lands when he makes application for a thousand hectares, as in this case; why don't you say to him we are now ready to make a lease; you must make a lease or get off the land?

Mr. WORCESTER. I think that might have been done with great propriety in that case.

Mr. MADISON. Don't you think you ought to do that?

Mr. WORCESTER. Yes, sir; I think it should be done.

Mr. MADISON. I think in the case of the employees of the Government that ought to be done; I can appreciate the situation of the natives. Mr. PARSONS. Before they have completed their experiments to determine whether they can do anything or not?

Mr. MADISON. I do not believe they should be permitted to hold applications for a long period of time after the Government is ready to make the lease. Of course, that is a matter of opinion.

Mr. PARSONS. Do they pay rent?

Mr. WORCESTER. No, sir; not until the lease is executed. They have to pay for the survey in the first instance. A survey is made in connection with the application, and the cost of the survey of a large tract may run from 200 to P500, depending on the size of the tract. In the case of a small tract the cost may run a great Ideal lower than 200.

Mr. DOUGLAS. They pay the cost of the survey, whether much or little, do they not?

Mr. WORCESTER. Yes, sir; ordinarily the cost is less than 200, but that will depend upon the size of the tract.

Mr. DOUGLAS. Now, then, having made applications, are the applicants required-without reference to whether they are American or Filipino-to pay the cost of the survey?

Mr. WORCESTER. Yes, sir.

Mr. DOUGLAS. And having paid the cost of the survey and taken possession of the property, he continues on that ground without paying rent until his lease is executed?

Mr. WORCESTER. I think in that case the general procedure would be to go ahead and urge him to take out his lease, but until the lease was executed he would not pay rent.

Mr. DOUGLAS. Therefore as long as he can hold the land under his application without paying rent he would do so?

Mr. WORCESTER. Yes, sir; and that is just what nearly all Filipinos and many Americans are doing at the present time.

Mr. DOUGLAS. Now, of course you can well appreciate that in our country, where the demand for land is great, such a thing would be intolerable, and the reason they tolerate it in the Philippines is because there are such vast quantities of public lands; the unoccupied area is so great that there would be no competition for it, and it would be better to have the lands cultivated than not.

Mr. WORCESTER. We hope to get the people to take up the lands, but in province after province we find that the cultivated area is but a fraction of 1 per cent of the entire land in the province, and we do not feel disposed to be severe with the people who want to occupy the land.

Mr. DOUGLAS. Do you mean to say that the percentage of cultivated land is so low as that-less than 1 per cent?

Mr. WORCESTER. In Mindoro, the cultivated land is about onethird of 1 per cent of the whole island-I can give it to you exactlythree hundred and nineteen one-thousandths of 1 per cent; a little less than one-third of 1 per cent of all the land in Mindoro is under cultivation.

Mr. DOUGLAS. What proportion of the land in Mindoro is in forest?

Mr. WORCESTER. I can not tell you that; but nearly all of the forest land on the island is suitable for cultivation.

Mr. DOUGLAS. This less than one-third of 1 per cent includes forest and mineral lands of all kinds?

Mr. WORCESTER. Yes, sir; the whole area of Mindoro. All the forest lands of Mindoro are suitable for cultivation. The soil is enriched by the falling and rotting of the leaves, and it makes the very best of agricultural land. The natives insist on clearing these forest lands because of the great crops they can get from them.

Mr. DOUGLAS. Is it any evidence that the land is suitable for cultivation when the percentage of cultivated land in Mindoro is so low?

Mr. WORCESTER. Probably the richest island in the whole group is the island of Paraqua, or Palawan, as it is now called; and the figures I give you are too high, because the figures for the island itself would be considerably lower than are those for the Province. The dense population is not on the main island, but on certain of the smaller islands. In the old Province of Paraqua, which includes the northern part of the main island and numerous small thickly settled islands, the total cultivated area is four hundred and eghty-three one-thousandths of 1 per cent, and in Paraqua Sur the total cultivated area is seventy-six one-thousandths of 1 per cent. On the great island of Mindanao, which ranks with Mindoro in the fertility of its soil, we have six hundred and thirty-one one-thousandths of 1 per cent in cultivation, or a little more than one-half of 1 per cent.

Mr. HAMILTON. Does not this cogon grass take possession of some of the lands there?

Mr. WORCESTER. Yes, sir. Cebu is almost covered with it, as well as enormous areas in Luzon, Masbate, Panay, and Mindanao. In Mindoro it is abundant on the west coast, where there are some very extensive regions covered with it.

Mr. HAMILTON. I understood Capt. Sleeper to say that the natives would cultivate piece of this ground for three years and then have to abandon it on account of this grass; is that true?

Mr. WORCESTER. Yes, sir.

Mr. HAMILTON. At the same time I understood him to say, if I understood him correctly, that it took something like three years' time to get ground in proper condition.

Mr. WORCESTER. I think the contradiction is apparent, not real. In the first case the reference was to forest land. In the second to cogon land. When forest land is cleared, the ground is left clean, for the forest is so dense that grasses can not grow in it. Soon the cogon grass invades the land and then the native leases it and clears away more forest. If he takes up land covered with cogon grass, he first burns the grass off and plows it again and again. One of the great things we are doing in the Philippines now is to show the natives how that cogon land can be redeemed. Their own implements are very crude, and with them they can not make much headway against the cogon grass. Now, we have shown that if the land is thoroughly plowed and the roots of the cogon raked out and brought to the surface, where the sun can get at them, the succeeding growth will be comparatively light.

Mr. HAMILTON. How often must a piece of land be plowed in this process of extermination?

Mr. WORCESTER. Three or four times the first year, but the number of plowings will decrease with each succeeding year. We have demonstrated another fact; if the ground is closely pastured for two or three years, after having been burned over, other better grasses will take the place of the cogon.

The CHAIRMAN. It is nearly 12 o'clock, and as there is a demand for a quorum in the House, I think we had better suspend now, if that is the sense of the committee, and adjourn to meet on the 5th of January, 1911, at 10 o'clock a. m.

(A motion being put, the committee voted to adjourn until 10 o'clock Thursday, January 5, 1911.)

о

C