merica's
moral obligations towards it would cease, and the mutual relations
would then be only those ordinarily subsisting between two nations.

By Philippine Commission Act dated April 30, 1902, a Bureau of
Agriculture was organized. The chief of this department is assisted
by experts in soil, farm-management, plant-culture, breeding, animal
industry, seed and fibres, an assistant agrostologist, and a tropical
agriculturist. Shortly after its organization, 18,250 packages of
field and garden seeds were sent to 730 individuals for experiment
in different parts of the Colony, with very encouraging results. The
work of this department is experimental and investigative, with a
view to the improvement of agriculture in all its branches.

In Spanish times agricultural land was free of taxation. Now it pays a
tax not exceeding .87 per cent. of the assessed value. The rate varies
in different districts, according to local circumstances. For instance,
in 1904 it was .87 per cent. in Baliuag (Bulacan) and in Vinan (La
Laguna), and .68 per cent. in San Miguel de Mayumo (Bulacan). This tax
is subdivided in its application to provincial and municipal general
expenses and educational disbursements. The people make no demur
at paying a tax on land-produce; but they complain of the system of
taxation of capital generally, and particularly of its application to
lands lying fallow for the causes already explained. The approximate
yield of the land-tax in the fiscal year of 1905 was P2,000,000; it
was then proposed to suspend the levy of this tax for three years in
view of the agricultural depression.

The Manila Port Works (_vide_ p. 344), commenced in Spanish times, are
now being carried on more vigorously under contract with the Atlantic,
Gulf, and Pacific Company. Within the breakwater a thirty-foot deep
harbour, measuring about 400 acres, is being dredged, the mud raised
therefrom being thrown on to 168 acres of reclaimed land which is to
form the new frontage. Also a new channel entrance to the Pasig River
is to be maintained at a depth of 18 feet. The Americans maintain
that there will be no finer harbour in the Far East when the work is
completed. The reclaimed acreage will be covered with warehouses and
wharves, enabling vessels to load and discharge at all seasons instead
of lying idle for weeks in the typhoon season and bad weather, as they
often do now. With these enlarged shipping facilities, freights to
and from Manila m