132 USEFUL PLANTS OF GUAM. 



weeds are getting ahead of my corn." And when lime is needed, the 

 natiA'e to whom one is directed may say: "After I have finished 

 gathering mj' coconuts for copi'a I will get my boys to cut wood and 

 gather limestone to make a kiln. Never fear, Senor, you shall have 

 your lime within six weeks." On one occasion a blacksmith was 

 delayed two weeks in making a plow, owing to the fact that the man 

 from whom he got his charcoal had been so busy supplying visiting 

 vessels with fruits and vegetables that he could not find time to burn it. 



Absence of povekty. — The result of this condition of society is 

 that when a father dies the wife and children are not left destitute, 

 as would be the case if they depended on the results of his handiwork 

 alone. The crops continue to ripen and are gathered in due time by 

 the family; the weeds and worms are kept out of the tobacco; the 

 coffee bushes bend each year under their weight of berries; the coco- 

 nuts, as usual, yield their annual dividend. Indeed, in most cases the 

 annual income in provisions is amply sufficient to keep the family 

 supplied with its simple clothing, some flour and rice brought by the 

 traders from Japan or America to exchange for copra, and perhaps a 

 few delicacies, a ribbon or two, or a kerchief to go over the head, and 

 a new saint to place in the little alcove of the side room, where the 

 light is always kept burning. 



Absence of wealth. — Very few of the natives have accumulated 

 money or property of value. Some of them own fine coconut groves, 

 rice fields, and coffee plantations, and a few own small herds of cattle 

 and buffalo. At first sight it seems an impossibility that poverty 

 should exist where food can be produced in such abundance; and 

 indeed were it not for the frequent hurricanes which sweep the islands 

 there would be little necessity for accumulating capital. In spite of 

 the dearth of food which invariably follows hurricanes, the majority 

 of natives are not inclined to cultivate larger crops than are absolutely 

 necessary for the immediate subsistence of their families. They say 

 that corn and rice will become moldy and spoil, or will be infested by 

 weevils if kept a long time, and that all their extra labor in planting 

 and reaping will be lost. This demonstrates the necessity for capital, 

 and capital not in perishable rice and corn, but in the shape of good 

 indestructible and divisible money having intrinsic value. In this 

 way surplus food could be converted into money at the end of a good 

 harvest and reconverted into food (imported rice or flour or tinned 

 meats) in times of scarcity. As it is, when crops are ruined and the 

 natives see starvation staring them in the face, the traders will not 

 furnish them with supplies in return for the superfluous rosaries and 

 trinkets they have accepted in exchange for their copra and other 

 marketable products, and thev have to go to the woods for cycas nuts 

 and wild yams in order to keep themselves alive until succor comes 

 from abroad. 



