M A N I L L A. 



287 



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 

 generally placed around or near a growth of bamboo, whose tall, 

 graceful, and feathery outline is of itself a beautiful object, but con- 

 nected as it is often seen with the returns of the harvest, it furnishes 

 an additional source of gratification. 







The different kinds of rice, and especially the upland, would no 

 doubt be an acquisition to our country. At the time we were at 

 Manilla, it was not thought feasible to pack it, for it had just been 

 reaped, and was so green that it would not have kept.* Although 



* Since my return home, at the desire of that distinguished agriculturist, Colonel Austin, 

 of South Carolina, I have sent for some samples of the different kinds, and under his care 

 it will no doubt be well treated. 



