completed, they leave
the ground pierced like a sieve, and disappear, for their existence
has now reached its termination. Three weeks afterwards, however,
the eggs open, and myriads of young locusts swarm the earth. On
the spot where they are born, whatever will serve them for food is
quickly consumed. As soon as they have acquired sufficient strength
they abandon their birth-place, destroy all kinds of vegetation that
comes in their way, and direct their course to the cultivated fields,
which they desolate until the period when their wings appear. They
then take flight in order to devastate more distant plantations.

As may be seen, agriculture in the Philippines presents many
difficulties, but it also yields results that may be looked for in
vain in any other country. During the years which are exempt from
the calamities I have described the earth is covered with riches;
every kind of colonial produce is raised in extraordinary abundance,
frequently in the proportion of eighty to one, and on many plantations
two crops of the same species are harvested in one year. The rich and
extensive pasturages offer great facilities for raising a large number
of cattle, which absolutely cost nothing but the trifling wages paid
by the proprietor to a few shepherds.

Upon my property I possessed three herds--one of three thousand
head of oxen, another of eight hundred buffaloes, and the other of
six hundred horses. At that period of the year when the rice was
harvested, the shepherds explored the mountains, and drove these
animals to a vast plain at a short distance from my dwelling. This
plain was covered by these three species of domesticated animals,
and presented, especially to the proprietor, an admirable sight. At
night they were herded in large cattle-folds, near the village, and on
the following day a selection was made of the oxen that were fit for
slaughter, of the horses that were old enough for breaking-in, of the
buffaloes that were strong enough to be employed in working. The herds
were then re-driven to the plain, there to remain until night. This
operation lasted during a fortnight, after which time the animals
were set at liberty until the same period of the following year. When
at liberty the herd divided itself into bands, and thus roamed about
the mountains and the valleys they had previously quitted, the only
trouble caused to the shepherds being an occasional ramble about the
spots where the animals tranquil