37 



should be replaced as rapidly as possible with those of more modem 

 construction and higher efficiency. One-handled steel plows of foreign 

 manufacture and one of local manufacture at Iloilo are in common use 

 now in Negros and Panay. 



Animal power. — The best animal power for use in breaking and culti- 

 vating land in the Philippines is the carabao (water buffalo). They are 

 large and powerful but very slow and can only work a portion of the day 

 on account of their susceptibility to heat. The tendency in the sugar- 

 growing districts is to use them more for breaking the land and doing 

 hea^^y hauling, such as transportation of the cane from the field to the 

 mill and the sugar from the mill to the shipping point, and to use work 

 bullocks for the cultivation of the cane and the other lighter work on 



Pig. 4. — Disk harrow. 



the plantations. The native ponies are only about 120 to 132 centimeters 

 (12 to 13 hands) in height and weigh on an average not over 250 kilos 

 (650 pounds), which renders them unsuitable for sugar-plantation work, 

 except for light passenger transportation. There are a few places in 

 the Islands where they are used in double teams on American one-horse 

 plows for the breaking and cultivation of land. They are more often 

 used as pack animals for carrying sugar to the market, or as draft 

 animals singly and in double teams for its transportation on carretelas 

 and small wagons. There are only a few instances where foreign mules 

 and horses have been imported into the Philippines for use on sugar 

 plantations and they have generally not proven to be economical for this 

 purpose. 



