288 
Next in popularity is the domestic gin, a liquor superior to anisado 
and more expensive, the cost of production being greater and it is used 
generally by the better classes. 
The excise tax on alcohol is 20 centavos per proof liter, a modest 
tax, and one which it has been demonstrated the industry is able to 
bear. A liter of anisado, sixty proof, paying here 12 centavos, would 
pay in the United States 55 centavos. And compared to Porto Rico 
the tax collected here is only about one-third. 
{Manila Daily Bulletin November 3, 1007.) 
PLANTING IN CALIFORNIA. 
Dear Mr. Ridley, 
We all know that Americans are past masters in the art of adver- 
tising their country and the innumerable, well set-up booklets and 
leaflets which are sown broadcast to reveal to the uninitiated that the 
beauties and resources of California are among the best of their kind. 
The glowing descriptions of climate, soil and variety of products 
are enough to make one’s mouth water to be the happy owner of a 
homestead in that favoured corner of “ God’s own country.” 
The following experiences of our friend E — ,(a tenderfoot they 
would call him over there), a man of great resource, and wide range 
of knowledge, and as keen a planter as ever lived, may interest some 
readers of the Agricultural Bulletin, by showing that in those privileged 
lands, life is not all cushioned with ease, and that, there, as elsewhere, 
the order of the day is hard work, often made harder by the insane 
speeding-up, which prevents a man from giving the best that is in him, 
because quantity goes before quality. 
There are his own words : 
“ It will be hard to get a job as manager or assistant-manager on any 
“ plantation here in California. In nearly every plantation, the owners 
“ do their own work as managers and work on the orchards themselves. 
“ I am now on an orange and lemon ranch very busy pruning and 
“ picking the lemons. It is hard work : the hours are from 6 to 5 with 
“ an interval of 1 hour for lunch. Lemon pays very well; the fruit is 
“ paid wholesale 4 to 5 cents a pound against 1 cent sometime ago. 
“But without having plenty of money it would not do to start a 
“ planting enterprise here. Even with money, success is not always 
“assured. A big company planted some 1,500 acres hereabouts, with 
“ lemons a few years ago and found after a while that the soil in some 
“ places was unsuitable and, besides, they had some dry years and 
“ could not get enough water for irrigation and so had to let 800 acres 
“ die out to keep the rest alive. Some of their dead orchards are 
“ situated close to our place. 
“ By Jove, do you know, I find that I liked the Straits better than 
“ I thought. The trouble was that the climate there did not suit me. 
“ This should be a better country and so it is. But it all depends. 
“ If there is a dry winter here in Southern California, it just paralyses 
“ things. Irrigation is good enough where water can be bad and 
