340 USEFUL PLANTS OF GUAM. 



in groups of 3 or 5 in straight rows about a foot apart. Rice is never sown 

 broadcast in Guam. About two kabanes of seed are required for each hectare of land. 

 The weeding is done by hand. The weeds are buried in the mud. They soon decay 

 and serve to enrich the soil. In Guam the fields are kept flooded until the grain is 

 completely developed and well filled out. The water is then drawn off the fields. 



As there is no provision in Guam for storing water in reservoirs for irrigation or 

 pumping it from wells, the season for rice growing depends upon the water supply 

 from the streams. As a rule there is but one rice harvest per year. The plants are 

 not pulled up, but are cut with a sickle at a convenient height, leaving the stalks, 

 which sometimes produce a second crop. The gathered crop is exposed to the sun 

 only while the reaping is going on. It is carried to sheds the evening of the same 

 day and placed under cover. 



Rice is thrashed either by treading it under foot or by beating the stalks over a 

 pole or bamboo grating. The grain is separated from the straw very easily by the 

 latter process, which, in Guam, is preferred to the former. It is then winnowed. 

 It is kept in store in its unhulled condition, small quantities being hulled as required 

 in a large wooden mortar (pilon) made of a log with a cavity at the upper end holding 

 from a half ganta to a ganta of grain. The pestle is also of wood, having an oblong 

 thickening at each end and slender in the middle, so as to be easily grasped by the 

 hand. As a rule rice grown in Guam is inferior to that imported from other coun- 

 tries. The best rice brought to the island comes from Japan, selling at 10 pesos ($5) 

 a picul. American rice sells for 10 cents a pound. Rice was formerly brought to 

 Guam from the Philippines and from Saigon, Cochin China, but importation from 

 these sources has stopped. When the rice harvest of the island has been fairly good 

 the unhulled paddy is sold at 6 pesos a kaban. In the time of Don Felipe de la 

 Corte its usual price was 3 pesos a kaban. (See value of picul and kaban under ' ' Meas- 

 ures," p. 139.) In time of scarcity Japanese and American rice is sold as high as 20 

 pesos a sack ($10) containing 1 picul. 



Unsuccessful attempts have been made to cultivate rice in the large marsh near 

 Agana, called "laCienaga," and Don Felipe de la Corte tried to cultivate upland 

 rice on the island, but failed. «■ The labor required to keep the rice fields free from 

 weeds is so great and so exacting, and failures of the crop are so frequent, that rice 

 culture is gradually being abandoned in Guam, except in sites especially favored. 

 The natives are directing their attention more and more to maize, their principal 

 food staple, and to cocoanut planting, the only commercial industry of the island. 



According to Don Antonio Martinez, the yield of rice per hectare of land is, in 

 good years, as much as 100 kabanes. Laborers in rice fields are subject to sick- 

 ness which they call "pasmon maneiigheng, " especially those working in drained 

 fields. This is probably of a malarial nature ("manehgherig" signifies cold). Land 

 varies greatly in fertility. In some places the same field is cultivated for a number 

 of years in succession; in others the soil soon becomes exhausted. In the latter case 

 it is allowed to lie fallow for one or two years. "Weeds grow up, and their leaves 

 falling and decaying serve to enrich the fields anew. When the rice is ripe the fields 

 are visited by doves and wild ducks, which cause considerable loss to the farmer. 

 References: 



Oryza saiiva L. Sp. PI. 1 : 333. 1753. 

 Otaheite apple. See Caryophyllus malaccensis. 

 Oto (Panama). See CcUadium colocasia. 

 Otud or Otot (Guam). See Icaporea sp. 

 Oxalidaceae. Oxalis family. 



This family is represented in Guam by the common Oxalis cornieuZata and Averrhoa 

 carambola, a small tree with sensitive foliage, planted for the sake of its fruit. 



a See De la Corte, Memoria descr. e hist, de las islas Marianas, p. 60, 1875. 



