s Indios_;
a good or bad crop of it, influencing them just as much as potatoes
do the Irish, or as the wheat crops do in bread-consuming countries.

In September and October, when, in consequence of the heavy previous
rains since the beginning of the wet season, the parched land is
so buried as generally about that time to present the appearance of
one vast marsh, it is ploughed lightly, after which the husbandman
transplants the grain from the nurseries in which he had previously
deposited it, in order to undergo there the first stages of vegetation.

In December, or in January, the grain is ready for the sickle, and in
general repays his cares and labour by the most abundant harvest. There
is no culture more easy and simple; nor any which gives such positive
good results in less time, as only four months pass between the times
of sowing and reaping the rice crop.

In some places the mode of reaping differs from the customs of
others. At some places they merely cut the ears from off the stalks,
which are allowed to remain on the fields to decay, and fertilize
the soil as a manure; and in other provinces the straw is all reaped,
and bound in the same way as wheat is at home, being then piled up in
ricks and stacks to dry in the sun, after which the grain is separated
by the treading of ponies, the horses of the country, upon it, or by
other means, when the grain is again cleared of another outer husk,
by being thrown into a mortar, generally formed out of the trunk of
some large tree, where the men, women, and children of the farm are
occupied in pounding it with a heavy wooden pestle, which removes the
husk, but leaves the grain still covered by a delicate skin. When
in this state it is known as pinagua; but after that is taken off,
the rice is clean.

For blowing away the chaff from the grain, they employ an implement
worked by a handle and a wheel in a box, which is very similar to
the old-fashioned fanners used in Scotland by the smaller farmers
for the same purpose.

In the neighbourhood of Manilla, there is a steam-mill for the purpose
of cleaning rice; and there are several machines worked by horse-power
throughout the country. But although there are many facilities for the
employment of water-power for the same purpose, I am not acquainted
with any mill moved on that principle.

The qualities of rice produced in the different provinces, varies a
good deal in quality. That of Ylocos is the heaviest, a cava