MANILLA. 305 



scarcity of labourers; while those who are disengaged will refuse to 

 work, unless they receive one-third, and even one-half of the crop, to 

 be delivered free of expense at their houses. This the planters are 

 often obliged to give, or lose the whole crop. Nay, unless the harvest 

 is a good one, reapers are very unwilling to engage to take it even on 

 these terms, and the entire crop is lost. The labourers, during the 

 time of harvest, are supported by the planter, who is during that 

 time exposed to great vexation, if not losses. The reapers are for the 

 most part composed of the idle and vicious part of the population, 

 who go abroad over the country to engage themselves in this employ- 

 ment, which affords a livelihood to the poorer classes ; for the different 

 periods at which the varieties of rice are planted and harvested, gives 

 them work during a large portion of the year. 



After the rice is harvested, there are different modes of treating it. 

 Some of the proprietors take it home, where it is thrown into heaps, 

 and left until it is desirable to separate it from the straw, when it 

 is trodden out by men and women with their bare feet. For this 

 operation, they usually receive another fifth of the rice. 



Others stack it in a wet and green state, which subjects it to heat, 

 from which cause the grain contracts a dark colour, and an unplea- 

 sant taste and smell. The natives, however, impute these defects to 

 the wetness of the season. 



The crop of both the low and upland rice, is usually from thirty to 

 fifty for one : this is on old land ; but on that which is newly cleared, 

 or which has never been cultivated, the yield is far beyond this. In 

 some soils of the latter description, it is said that for a chupa (seven 

 cubic inches) planted, the yield has been a caban. The former is the 

 two-hundred-and-eighth part of the latter. This is not the only 

 advantage gained in planting rich lands, but the saving of labour is 

 equally great; for all that is required is to make a hole with the 

 fingers, and place three or four grains in it. The upland rice requires 

 but little water, and is never irrigated. 



The cultivator in the Philippine Islands is always enabled to secure 

 plenty of manure ; for vegetation is so luxuriant that by pulling the 

 weeds and laying them with earth, a good stock is quickly obtained, 

 with which to cover his fields. Thus, although the growth is so rank 

 as to cause him labour, yet in this hot climate its decay is equally 

 rapid, which tends to make his labours more successful. 



The rice-stacks form a picturesque object on the field ; they are 

 vol. v. 77 



