Very little is known concerning the mineral wealth of the islands.  It is stated that there are deposits of coal, petroleum, iron, lead, sulphur, copper and gold in the various islands, but little or nothing has been done to develop them.  A few concessions have been granted for working mines, but the output is not large.  The gold is reported on Luzon, coal and petroleum on Cebu and Iloilo, and sulphur on Leyte.  The imports of coal in 1894 (the latest year for which the statistics have been printed) were 91,511 tons, and it came principally from Australia and Japan.  In the same year the imports of iron of all kinds were 9,632 tons.

If the Cebu coal proves to be good quality there is a large market for it in competition with the coal from Japan and Australia.

Agriculture.

Although agriculture is the chief occupation of the Philippines, yet only one-ninth of the surface is under cultivation.  The soil is very fertile, and even after deducting the mountainous areas, it is probable that the area of cultivation can be very largely extended, and that the islands can support a population equal to that of Japan (42,000,000).

The chief products are rice, corn, hemp, sugar, tobacco, cocoanuts and cacao.  Coffee and cotton were formerly produced in large quantities—­the former for export and the latter for home consumption; but the coffee plant has been almost exterminated by insects, and the home made cotton clothes have been driven out by the competition of those imported from England.  The rice and corn are principally produced in Luzon and Mindoro, and are consumed in the islands; the rice crop is about 765,000 tons; it is insufficient for the demand and 45,000 tons of rice were imported in 1894, the greater portion from Saigon, and the rest from Hongkong and Singapore; also 8,669 tons (say 60,000 barrels) of flour, of which more than two-thirds came from China and less than one-third from the United States.

The cacao is raised in the southern islands, the best quality of it in Mindanao.  The production amounts to only 150 tons, and it is all made into chocolate and consumed in the islands.

The sugar cane is raised in the Visayas.  The crop yielded, in 1894, about 235,000 tons of raw sugar, of which one-tenth was consumed in the islands and the balance, or 210,000 tons, valued at $11,000,000, was exported, the greater part to China, Great Britain and Australia.

The hemp is produced in southern Luzon, Mindoro, the Visayas and Mindanao.  It is nearly all exported in bales.  In the year 1894 the amount was 96,000 tons, valued at $12,000,000.

Tobacco is raised in all the islands, but the best quality and the greatest amount in Luzon.  A large amount is consumed in the islands, smoking being universal among the women as well as the men, but the best quality is exported.  The amount, in 1894, was 7,000 tons of leaf tobacco, valued at $1,400,000, and 1,400 tons of manufactured tobacco, valued at $1,750,000.  Spain takes 30 per cent, and Egypt 10 per cent of the leaf tobacco.  Of the manufactured tobacco, 70 per cent, goes to China and Singapore, 10 per cent. to England, and 5 per cent. to Spain.