s very difficult to rid the fields.
The bolo or long-knife, a basket, a hoe, complete the implements, and
answer all the purposes of our spades, etc.

The buffalo was used until within a few years exclusively in their
agricultural operations, and they have lately taken to the use of the
ox; but horses are never used. The buffalo, from the slowness of his
motions, and his exceeding restlessness under the heat of the climate,
is ill adapted to agricultural labour; but the natives are very partial
to them, notwithstanding they occasion them much labour and trouble in
bathing them during the great heat. This is absolutely necessary, or the
animal becomes so fretful as to be unfit for use. If it were not for
this, the buffalo would, notwithstanding his slow pace, be most
effective in agricultural operations; he requires little food, and that
of the coarsest kind; his strength surpasses that of the stoutest ox,
and he is admirably adapted for the rice or paddy fields. They are very
docile when used by the natives, and even children can manage them; but
it said they have a great antipathy to the whites and all strangers. The
usual mode of guiding them is by a small cord attached to the cartilage
of the nose. The yoke rests on the neck before the shoulders, and is of
simple construction. To this is attached whatever it may be necessary to
draw, either by traces, shafts, or other fastenings. Frequently these
animals may be seen with large bundles of bamboo lashed to them on each
side. Buffaloes are to be met with on the lake with no more than their
noses and eyes out of the water, and are not visible until they are
approached within a few feet, when they cause alarm to the passengers by
raising their large forms close to the boat. It is said that they resort
to the lake to feed on a favourite grass that grows on its bottom in
shallow water, and which they dive for. Their flesh is not eaten,
except that of the young ones, for it is tough and tasteless. The milk
is nutritious, and of a character between that of the goat and cow.

Rice is, perhaps, of their agricultural products, the article upon which
the inhabitants of the Philippine Islands most depend for food and
profit; of this they have several different varieties, which the natives
distinguish by their size and the shape of the grain: the birnambang,
lamuyo, malagequit, bontot-cabayo, dumali, quinanda, bolohan, and tangi.
The three first are aquatic, the five latter upland