286 
MANILLA. 
adhering to the ear. If it were gathered in any other way, the loss 
by transportation on the backs of buffaloes and horses, without any 
covering to the sheaf, would be so great as to dissipate a great portion 
of the crop. 
It appears almost incredible that any people can remain in igno¬ 
rance of a way of preventing so extravagant and wasteful a mode 
of harvesting. The government has been requested to prohibit it on 
account of the great expense it gives rise to; but whether any steps 
have ever been taken in the matter, I did not learn. It is said that 
not unfrequently a third part of the crop is lost, in consequence of the 
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 employment, 
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 opera¬ 
tion, 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 advan¬ 
tage 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. 
