56 
COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL 
percentage of the Christian natives can read and write 
than the peasantry of Spain, but the education does not 
go far. In every village where there is a church there is 
a school where the children are taught to read and write 
Spanish. In 1886 there were 1608 such schools, afford¬ 
ing instruction to 177,113 pupils. Tagal and Bisayan 
alike have relinquished their peculiar alphabet, and the 
native officers are chosen, if possible, from those only 
who can speak the language of their European masters. 
There are eight or ten Spanish newspapers published in 
the islands, and a single paper in Tagalog, but all are 
subjected to ecclesiastical censure. 
8. Agriculture, Trade, and Commerce. 
As in most parts of the Malay Archipelago, the system 
of agriculture is that of small holdings. Only one- 
fifteenth of the entire land area of the archipelago is 
cultivated. Bice is, of course, the staple crop, but 
the cultivation is not as careful as in Java and 
elsewhere. Maize, which is gathered in two months 
from the time of sowing, has been much grown of 
late, especially in Luzon, Zebu, and Mindanao, and 
partly takes its place, but large quantities of rice are 
annually imported. Abaca or Manila hemp is the chief 
export. It is the fibre of Musa textilis or Musa abaca , 
a species of banana which produces a small and 
uneatable fruit, and requires peculiar conditions of soil 
and climate for its growth. It is cultivated in Samar, 
Leyte, Zebu, and Bohol, but the best comes from the 
Camarines provinces and Albay in southern Luzon, 
Legaspi being the port of shipment to Manila. North of 
Manila this plant will not thrive. The export of the fibre 
