w is it is probable
that only the short dam will need to be rebuilt each year.

All dams and irrigating canals are built directly by or at the expense
of the persons benefited by the water. Water is never rented to persons
with sementeras along an artificial waterway. If a person refuses
to bear his share of the labor of construction and maintenance his
sementeras must lie idle for lack of water.

All sementera owners along a waterway, whether it is natural or
artificial, meet and agree in regard to the division of the water. If
there is an abundance, all open and close their sluice gates when they
please. When there is not sufficient water for this, a division is made
-- usually each person takes all the water during a certain period of
time. This scheme is supposed to be the best, since the flow should
be sufficient fully to flood the entire plat -- a 100-gallon flow in
two hours is considered much better than an equal flow in two days.

During the irrigating season, if there is lack of water, it becomes
necessary for each sementera owner to guard his water rights against
other persons on the same creek or canal. If a man sleeps in his house
during the period in which his sementeras are supposed to receive
water, it is pretty certain that his supply will be stolen, and, since
he was not on guard, he has no redress. But should sleep chance to
overtake him in his tiresome watch at the sementeras, and should some
one turn off and steal his water, the thief will get clubbed if caught,
and will forfeit his own share of water when his next period arrives.

The third method of irrigation -- lifting the water by direct human
power -- is not much employed by the Igorot. In the vicinity of Bontoc
pueblo there are a few sementeras which were never in a position to be
irrigated by running water. They are called "pay-yo' a kao-u'-chan,"
and, when planted with rice in the dry season, need to be constantly
tended by toilers who bring water to them in pots from the river,
creeks, or canals. On the Samoki side of the valley during a week or
so of the driest weather in May, 1903, there were four "well sweeps,"
each with a 5-gallon kerosene-oil can attached, operating nearly all
day, pouring water from a canal into sementeras through 60 or 80 feet
of small, wooden troughs.

Turning the soil

Since rice, called "pa-ku'." is the chief agricultural product of
the Igorot it will be considered in the following sections first,
after