Igorots from Bontoc, and even Ifugaos, now visit Baguio with increasing frequency, attracted by a large market established especially for the benefit of the hill people, where they may sell their manufactured articles or agricultural products, and may purchase at moderate cost the commodities which they need.  The Benguet Igorots do not raise rice enough for their own use.  Formerly they had to make up the shortage by eating camotes, but they have now become so prosperous that they can afford to buy rice, which is carted in over the Benguet Road.

There are promising gold mines close at hand.  Their development would have been impossible had not the construction of the Benguet Road made it feasible to bring in the necessary heavy machinery.

Some of the fruits, many of the flowers and practically all of the vegetables of the temperate zone can be advantageously produced in Benguet.  They are being shipped to Manila in steadily increasing quantities.

One would gather from the criticisms of the enemies of the Philippine government that the Benguet Road was a pleasure boulevard.  The government motor trucks transported over it during the last fiscal year 22,390 passengers and 7696.24 metric tons of freight.

Railroad corporations are inclined to be a bit soulless.  The Manila Railway Company is extending its line to Baguio by means of a branch leaving the main line at Aringay.  The building of this extension is now [514] fifty-five per cent completed, and the company is bound under the terms of its agreement to finish the road by August, 1914.  In the event of its failure to do so, it must pay a monthly penalty amply sufficient in amount to cover the cost of maintaining the Benguet Road.  Baguio will continue to develop steadily until the railroad is opened and then will go ahead by leaps and bounds.  It is sure to prosper because it meets a very real and very imperative need.

In this connection the following extracts from a letter of August 7, 1913, from the director of medical services in India to the department surgeon of the Philippines are of interest:—­

“In reply to your letter of June 31st I attach a statement showing the number and location of the hill stations in India with the approximate capacity of each, and their height above sea-level.

“With regard to your inquiry regarding the number of cases treated in these sanitaria we use these hill stations not only for the treatment of convalescents, but also for giving healthy men an opportunity of spending the Indian hot weather under the best climatic conditions procurable.  To this end, so far as is practicable, all units are sent to the hills for the first hot weather after their arrival in India, and they are thus able to settle down to their new conditions of life without being immediately exposed to the trying and enervating environment of a plains station in the summer months.  We also send as many soldiers as we can of the older residents from hot stations to summer in the hills.