CACAO CULTURE IN THE PHILIPPINES. part 9 (the end)
ESTIMATED COST AND REVENUES DERIVED FROM A CACAO PLANTATION.
Estimates of expenses in establishing a cacao farm in the Visayas
and profits after the fifth year. The size of the farm selected is 16 hectares , the amount of land prescribed by Congress of a single public land entry.
The cost of procuring such a tract of land is as yet undetermined and can
not be reckoned in the following tables. The prices of the crop are estimatedat 48 cents per kilo, which is the current price for the best gradesof cacao in the world's markets. The yield per tree is given as 2 catties,or 1.25 kilos, a fair and conservative estimate for a good tree, with littleor no cultivation. The prices for unskilled labor are 25 per cent in advance of the farm hand in the Visayan islands. No" provision is riiade for management or supervision, as the owner will, it is assumed, act asmanager.
Charges to capital account are given for the second, third, and fourth
year, but no current expenses are given, for other crops are to defray operating expenses until the cacao trees begin to bear. No estimate of residence is given. All accounts are in United States currency.
Expendable the first year.
Capital account:
Clearing of average brush and timber land, at $15 per hectare $340.00
Four carabaos, plows, harrows, cultivators, carts, etc 550.00
Breaking and preparing land, at $5 per hectare 80. 00
Opening main drainage canals, at $6 per hectare 96. 00
Tool house and storeroom 200. 00
Purchase and planting 10,000 abacd stools, at 2 cents each 200.00
Seed purchase, rearing and planting 12,000 cacao, at 3 cents each 360.00
Contingent and incidental 174.00
Total $2,000.00
Rainbow Over the Chocolate Hills, Bohol Island, Bohol, Philippines ...
In the tenth year there should be no increase in taxes or fertilizers, and
a slight increase in yield, sufficient to bring the net profits of the estate to the approximate amount of $5,000. This would amount to a dividend of rather more than $312 per hectare, or its equivalent of about $126 per
acre.
These tables further show original capitalization cost of nearly $90 per
acre, and from the ninth year annual operating expenses of rather more
than $60 per acre.
It should be stated, however, that the operating expenses are based upon
a systematic and scientific management of the estate ; while the returns or
income are based upon revenue from trees that are at the disadvantage of
being without culture of any kind, and, while I am of the opinion that the
original cost per acre of the plantation, nor its current operating expenses may be much reduced below the figures given, I feel that there is a reasonable certainty that the crop product may be materially increased beyond the limit of two "catties."
In Camerouns, Dr. Preuss, a close and well-trained observer, gives the
mean annual yield of trees of full-bearing age at 4.4 pounds .
Mr. Rousselot places the yield on the French Congo at the same figure
In the Caroline Islands it reaches 5 pounds and in Surinam, according
to M. Nichols, the average at maturity is 6| pounds. In Mindanao, I
have been told, but do not vouch for the report, of more than ten "catties"
taken in one year from a single tree; and, as there are well-authenticated
instances of record, of single trees having yielded as much as 30 pounds^
I am not prepared to altogether discredit the Mindanao story.
The difference, however, between good returns and enormous profits
arising from cacao growing in the Philippines will be determined by the
amount of knowledge, experience, and energy that the planter is capable
of bringing to bear upon the culture in question.
Source: Cacao Culture in the Philippines
Author: William S. Lyon
Published: 1902
Language: English
Origin: gutenberg.org
