to rouse the people to suppress the locusts. Accordingly Act No. 817, declaring the presence of locusts to be a public emergency and making provision for their suppression, was enacted on the 3d of August, 1903. By this act a board for the suppression of locusts was provided in each province, to consist of the three members of the provincial board and three agriculturalists. In each province in which locusts appeared, every able-bodied inhabitant, with a few necessary exceptions, was declared liable for service under regulations of the board, which might require the inhabitants to assemble "en masse" to suppress the pest, or might make it the duty of each inhabitant to deliver to an agent of the board a certain number of bushels of locusts a day. The municipal officers were made subject to the orders of the board, and they were required at once to give notice of the presence of locusts in any barrio of a town to the agents of the board. The board was authorized to distribute rice to those engaged in the work of suppressing locusts who were unable to support themselves during their service, and this rice, it was provided, the civil governor should purchase at the expense of the Congressional relief fund and distribute to the various provinces. Any person failing to comply with lawful regulations of the board. was made subject to prosecution and a fine of $10 or ten days imprisonment, or both. The board was also authorized to procure from the civil governor sheets of galvanized iron to be distributed to each town, and to be used as a means of obstructing the escape of locusts and of driving them into prepared ditches. These sheets of iron were also to be paid for from the Congressional relief fund.

Money has been drawn from the Congressional relief fund by virtue of Acts Nos. 738, 786, and 797, and under resolutions of the Commission adopted in accordance with the provisions of the last act. The three acts and the resolutions passed are appended to this report under Exhibit A. It was thought wise to buy rice and distribute it in the provinces to be used not only to pay for the destruction of locusts, but also for the payment of labor on the roads, for the labor in the erection of barrio schoolhouses and other public works, the construction of which in districts where the food supply was short would furnish means of living to the poor and indigent. Rice for this purpose proved generally to be better than money, because money earned and paid was too often lost in gambling, the prevailing vice among the Filipino people, whether rich or poor. Rice generally reached the mouths it was intended for.

We have purchased under Acts 786 and 797 from Congressional relief funds, rice amounting to 16,552,487 pounds, costing $732,790.13 Mexican currency, and 8,455,524 pounds, costing $348,931.93 Philippine currency. Of this 19,994,565 pounds have been distributed down to November 30 of this year, and we have on hand 5,013,446 pounds. Probably no more than this will be needed for the present year.

The following table shows the provinces to which the rice has been distributed and the purposes to which it has been devoted:

The only gratuitous distribution of rice permitted was as follows:

Mariquina fire sufferers

Piculs.

182

Indigent poor, town of Capiz, Panay

25

Relief inhabitants of Canaman, Magarao, Bombon, Quipajo, Ambos Camarines (50 piculs each town).

200

Total.....

407

Under date of September 18, 1903, provincial board of Occidental Negros was authorized to furnish 2 cavanes of rice per week to lepers at Macalol, Bacolod. (To be taken from rice shipped under Act 786.)

It was supposed for some time to be possible to destroy the locusts by infecting some of them with a disease from a poisonous fungus and allowing the infected ones to escape to their fellows and thus spread destruction through all of them. In exceptional instances this remedy was effective, but during the dry season it failed utterly, and it is so likely to fail at all times that it has not been deemed wise to devote any further attention to it. The destruction by locusts during the months of April, May, and June and earlier, was very great,

but it is thought that the steps since taken for the protection of the crops which were seeded in July and August have been quite effective to prevent serious loss. The offer of rice for work in suppressing the locusts, with the provisions of the law referred to, summoned the entire population-men, women and children—and the result justifies the plan.

The road work done at the expense of the relief fund has been chiefly that of repairing former roads under the control and direction of the provincial supervisors. The consulting engineer has been busy preparing plans and specifications for the construction of what may well be called "insular" roads, because they will lead from one province to another or from one side of an important island to another, and are too expensive to be built under the auspices of the provincial government.

Rice has also been used in Ilocos Norte, in Tayabas, and in Cavite, and possibly it will be used in other provinces for work done in the erection of barrio schoolhouses. Almost the entire cost of these schoolhouses is in labor, and the use of rice therefore, for the construction of such houses, is very convenient. Under the laws and executive orders safeguarding the expenditure of the rice, set forth in the appendix and already referred to, the objects, places of expenditure, the amount of work done, the price at which it was done, will all be shown by accounts filed by supervisors of the provinces with the auditor, but it is impossible at the present time to submit such accounts, for the reason that sufficient time has not elapsed for their submission and audit.

The stimulus given to the cultivation of the ground this year by legislation and the efforts of the authorities has led to what is probably a greater acreage for the planting of rice and other food supplies than any year since 1889. Of course much difficulty has been found in the absence of draft cattle, but the pinch of hunger and the instruction of municipal authorities has led to the use of the existing carabao by many different farmers and to some plowing by hand. The prospect is that we shall have a better rice crop in nearly all the provinces, except, possibly, Batangas, than we have had for years. It was at first thought that all the crops would be destroyed by the continuance of the drought, but after August rain fell all over the islands, and the rice which has seemed to be in a failing condition developed, and now gives prospect of producing a fair amount of grain.

No cases of actual starvation have been brought to the notice of the Government. In the provinces of Ambos Camarines, Iloilo, and Batangas it has been reported that there was much suffering from lack of food and this was doubtless true, but the people have always found enough camotes or tubers and other food roots to avoid starvation. Such food not properly cooked is indigestible and unhealthy,

and while there were no deaths from starvation there were diseases incident to bad and insufficient food which carried off many. Among people thus badly nourished, cholera, too, found many victims.

The absence of draft cattle is likely to produce a change in the amount of rice production in these islands under normal conditions. In a number of provinces hemp is being planted. The hemp crop does not need, except for purposes of transportation, the carabao. The hemp culture is increasing very rapidly in Laguna, in Batangas, in Cavite, in the Camarines, in Union, and in other provinces where rice was the chief product. The importation of rice for the year ending June 30, 1903, exceeded that of the previous year by about three and one-half millions of dollars gold, and reached as a grand total something over ten millions of dollars gold. It is hoped that no such amount of rice will need to be imported next year, but it should be said that if the culture of hemp, copra, sugar, and tobacco pays better, the importation of some rice as food may not necessarily indicate a lack of prosperity in the country.

One of the chief objects of the Congressional relief fund was the restocking of the islands with draft animals. By Act No. 738 the sum of $100,000 was appropriated for the preliminary expenses in the purchase of draft cattle. The acting insular purchasing agent and a cattle expert, taken from the agricultural bureau, were sent to every country in the Orient whence exportation to the Philippines was possible. The purchasing agent advertised in Manila for bids at which 5,000 carabao, immunized from rinderpest, would be delivered in Manila, but the uncertainty as to the percentage of cattle that would survive the process of immunization prevented our securing a contract from responsible cattle importers in Manila. The process of temporary immunization consists in injecting into the circulation of the animal a serum which will render the animal immune from rinderpest some four or five months. Permanent immunization is only effected by a simultaneous injection of the serum and virulent rinderpestic blood drawn from a victim of the disease. The inoculators of the board of health of the islands have inoculated many carabao in provinces revisited by rinderpest, to prevent a spread of the disease, and the loss has not averaged three per cent of the animals inoculated. It was hoped that the same result might attend inoculation of animals purchased in China and subjected to inoculation at Shanghai. Accordingly, the acting insular purchasing agent made a contract with the firm of Keylock & Pratt, of that city, for the delivery in Manila of 10,000 immunized carabao at the price of 88 Mexican pesos a head; an agent of the insular government to examine and reject carabao before inoculation at Shanghai and to supervise the process, and the insular government to share the risk of loss by paying 40 pesos for each head dying on account of it. The percentage of loss from the treatment became so

great at Shanghai that both parties to the contract were glad to modify its terms by a new contract under which Keylock & Pratt agreed to deliver 10,000 carabao of certain weight and age in Manila at 79 Mexican pesos a head, temporarily immunized in China and subject to inspection at Manila. Thus far it can not be said that the contract has been successful. The truth is that the imported animals seem to be peculiarly susceptible to many other diseases than rinderpest after they are brought here. We have lost nearly an entire herd of 200 from hemorrhagic septicemia, quite a number from surra, and others from a union of rinderpest and foot-and-mouth disease. In addition to this, we received word through the State Department at Washington that the Chinese Government would forbid the exportation of more than 1,000 animals. Our latest information, however, is that the Chinese authorities will not interfere with the fulfillment of the present contract. The following table shows the carabao transactions:

The Commisson passed Act 828 (a copy of which is appended under Exhibit A) for the purpose of prescribing a method of disposing of the carabao purchased in the provinces where they were most needed. The insular purchasing agent is authorized by the act to send carabao purchased to any province the provincial board of which shall request it, upon approval of the Commission. Sales are conducted under the auspices of the provincial board. The minimum price at cash sales is fixed at 70 Philippine pesos. The privilege of choice is to be put up for public bidding. Sales partly on time are allowed, but preference