﻿104 The Philippine Journal of Science 1914 



the Ilocano element of the population of Pangasinan, Zambales, 

 and Nueva Ecija, I am ignorant. In Cagayan Province, certain 

 Ilocano towns — for example, Claveria and Sanchez Mira — have 

 irrigation works of considerable extent. Claveria is said to 

 have more than 2,000 hectares of rice land under irrigation. 

 I suspect that these works have been built and maintained in 

 the same way as those in Ilocos Norte; that is, by popular 

 cooperative societies. But the total extent of irrigation works 

 built and maintained by Ilocanos in this province does not 

 reach that of the works existing in Ilocos Norte. In the latter 

 province, I have enjoyed good opportunities of observing the 

 working of a number of irrigation societies, and some details 

 about them may be of interest. 



There are irrigation societies in all the municipalities of 

 this province, but owing to the local conditions these societies 

 play the most important role in the northern half of the province 

 and are of special importance in Pasuquin, Bacarra, Bintar, and 

 Piddig. 



The members of each society are bound together by a written 

 agreement which prescribes the organization of the body and 

 the field of its operations, defines the duties of its members, 

 and provides penalties for disobedience which range from a 

 small fine to expulsion from the society and confiscation of a 

 member's share in the land irrigated. I have read a number 

 of these agreements as enforced in Bangi, Bintar, and Badoc. 

 There seems to be no standard or pattern for these documents, 

 for they differ widely one from the other. They range in preci- 

 sion and formality from agreements drawn up by lawyers and 

 composed of scores of paragraphs down to a simple statement 

 that "the undersigned agree to undertake the irrigation of 

 such-and-such a piece of land under the leadership of So-and-so." 

 The majority of agreements occupy a middle ground between 

 elaborate precision and sketchy simplicity. They have been 

 drawn up in most cases by men who have local influence, 

 but no legal training. Some of them at least were drawn up 

 with a view to taking up and irrigating a piece of public land; 

 it is not easy otherwise to understand the provision for con- 

 fiscation of the holding of a member who does not fulfill his 

 obligations. This provision occurs in the following instrument 

 organizing an irrigation society in an outlying settlement of 

 Bintar. The agreement is given here because it is fairly typical 

 of many. 



We, who sign our names or make a cross below, agree to make a canal to 

 bring water to the place called Gimamaga. There is no one compelling or 



