n any other way, the loss by transportation on the
backs of buffaloes and horses, without any covering to the sheaf, would
be so great as to dissipate a great portion of the crop.

After the rice is harvested, there are different modes of treating it.
Some of the proprietors take it home, where it is thrown into heaps, and
left until it is desirable to separate it from the straw, when it is
trodden out by men and women with their bare feet. For this operation
they usually receive a fifth part of the rice.

Others stack it in a wet and green state, which subjects it to heat,
from which cause the grain contracts a dark colour and an unpleasant
taste and smell. The natives, however, impute these defects to the
wetness of the season.

The crop of both the low and upland rice is usually from thirty to fifty
for one: this on old land; but on that which is newly cleared, or which
has never been cultivated, the yield is far beyond this. In some soils
of the latter description, it is said that for a chupa (seven cubic
inches) planted the yield has been a caban. The former is the
two-hundred-and-eighth part of the latter. This is not the only
advantage gained in planting rice lands, but the saving of labour is
equally great; for all that is required is to make a hole with the
fingers and place three or four grains in it. The upland rice requires
but little water, and is never irrigated.

The cultivator in the Philippine Islands is always enabled to secure
plenty of manure; for vegetation is so luxuriant that by pulling the
weeds and laying them with earth a good stock is quickly obtained with
which to cover his fields. Thus, although the growth is so rank as to
cause him labour, yet in this hot climate its decay is equally rapid,
which tends to make his labours more successful.

Among the important productions of these islands, I have mentioned hemp,
although the article called Manila hemp must not be understood to be
derived from the plant which produces the common hemp (_Canabis_), being
obtained from a species of plantain (_Musa textilis_), called in the
Philippines "abaca." This is a native of these islands, and was formerly
believed to be found only on Mindanao; but this is not the case, for it
is cultivated on the south part of Luzon and all the islands south of
it. It grows on high ground, in rich soil, and is propagated by seeds.
It resembles the other plants of the tribe of plantains, but its fruit
is much smaller,