. The Philippine Islands . ing the com-parative comfort to be derived from this, we must consider the lowprice of food and clothing, and the primitive habits of the islanders. The highest table-lands are most suitable for cane-planting, gooddrainage being a necessity of the situation. The shoots are plantedin February, and the cane is cut in the following December orJanuary. In the West Indies the canes are planted widely, and theratoons, or root-stocks, last from Hve to twenty years, sending upnew shoots annually. In the Philippines, however, the planting isrenewed annually, the canes being s
. The Philippine Islands . ing the com-parative comfort to be derived from this, we must consider the lowprice of food and clothing, and the primitive habits of the islanders. The highest table-lands are most suitable for cane-planting, gooddrainage being a necessity of the situation. The shoots are plantedin February, and the cane is cut in the following December orJanuary. In the West Indies the canes are planted widely, and theratoons, or root-stocks, last from Hve to twenty years, sending upnew shoots annually. In the Philippines, however, the planting isrenewed annually, the canes being set much closer. After cutting,the milling should be done in ten weeks, delay causing much lossin sugar. The whole process of milling and planting should becompleted by the middle of March, the remainder of the year beingleft to the growth and culture of the crop. THE SEVER.^L SYSTEMS OF LABOR. In the north the co-operati\e principle of labor is largely em-ployed, each tenant being provided with the necessar>- Agriculture : The Sugar and Rice Crops. 20Q and implements, and attending to the cane as it it were his provides the hands for cane-crushing and sugar-making, whilethe land-owner supplies other necessaries, and has to take the riskof typhoons, droughts, locusts, and the like. The tenants receive,as their share, from a third to a half of the crop, according to thebargain made. Nevertheless, they are generally in debt to theowner and are looked upon as his servants. In the south the plantations are worked on the wage great vigilance is needed to keep the men properly to theirtasks, overseers being emploj-ed, who have an interest in the overseer in some instances provides his own capital, andreceives two-thirds of the yield as his share. In 1877 a Britishcompany, with large capital, organized, to buy the cane-juice andto extract from it highly-retined sugar. Every preparation wasmade, but from the first the enterprise was a failure,
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectphilippinesdescripti
