56 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL 



percentage of the Christian natives can read and write 

 than the peasantry of Spain, but the education does not 

 go far. In every village where there is a church there is 

 a school where the children are taught to read and write 

 Spanish. In 1886 there were 1608 such schools, afford- 

 ing instruction to 177,113 pupils. Tagal and Bisayan 

 alike have relinquished their peculiar alphabet, and the 

 native officers are chosen, if possible, from those only 

 who can speak the language of their European masters. 

 There are eight or ten Spanish newspapers published in 

 the islands, and a single paper in Tagalog, but all are 

 subjected to ecclesiastical censure. 



8. Agriculture, Trade, and Commerce. 



As in most parts of the Malay Archipelago, the system 

 of agriculture is that of small holdings. Only one- 

 fifteenth of the entire land area of the archipelago is 

 cultivated. Pace is, of course, the staple crop, but 

 the cultivation is not as careful as in Java and 

 elsewhere. Maize, which is gathered in two months 

 from the time of sowing, has been much grown of 

 late, especially in Luzon, Zebu, and Mindanao, and 

 partly takes its place, but large quantities of rice are 

 annually imported. Abaca or Manila hemp is the chief 

 export. It is the fibre of Musa tcxtilis or Musa abaca, 

 a species of banana which produces a small and 

 uneatable fruit, and requires peculiar conditions of soil 

 and climate for its growth. It is cultivated in Saniar, 

 Leyte, Zebu, and Bohol, but the best comes from the 

 Camarines provinces and Albay in southern Luzon, 

 Legaspi being the port of shipment to Manila. North of 

 Manila this plant will not thrive. The export of the fibre 



