misfortunes. Cock-fighting and gambling of course upset
the calculation.

There are, it is said, over 20 different kinds of rice-paddy. These
are comprised in two common groups--the one is called _Macan_ rice
(Spanish, _Arroz de Semillero_) which is raised on alluvial soil
on the lowlands capable of being flooded conveniently with water,
and the other has the general denomination (in Luzon Is.) of _Paga_
or _Dumali_ (Spanish, _Arroz de Secano_) and is cultivated on high
lands and slopes where inundation is impracticable.

The _Macan_, or low-land rice, is much the finer quality, the grain
being usually very white, although _Macan_ rice is to be found
containing up to 25 per cent. of red grain, known in Tagalog as
_Tangi_, or _Malagcquit_. The white grain is that most esteemed. The
yield of grain varies according to the quality of the soil. In the
north of Bulacan Province the average crop of _Macan_ rice may be
taken at 80 cabans of grain for one caban of seed. In the south of
the same province the return reaches only one-half of that. In the
east of Pampanga Province, in the neighbourhood of Arayat, Magalang,
and Candava villages, the yield is still higher, giving, in a good
year, as much as 100 cabans for one of seed. In Negros a return of
50 cabans to one may be taken as a fair average.

_Paga_ rice always shows a large proportion of red grain, and the
return is, at the most, half that of _Macan_ yield, but whilst rarely
more than one crop per annum is obtained from low-lands (_Macan_
rice)--taking the average throughout the Islands--in most places up
to three crops of _Paga_ rice can be obtained.

Besides the ordinary agricultural risks to which rice cultivation is
exposed, a special danger often presents itself. The _Paga_ rice is
frequently attacked by flies (Tagalog, _Alutangia_), which suck the
flower just before seeding, and the person in charge of the plantation
has to stroll in the evenings and mornings among the setting to whisk
off these insects with a bunch of straws on the end of a stick, or
catch them with a net to save the grain. Both _Macan_ and _Paga_
are sometimes damaged by an insect, known in Ilocos Province as
_Talibatab_, which eats through the stalk of the plant before maturity,
causing the head, or flower, to droop over and wither, but this does
not happen every season.

To plant _Macan_ rice the grain or seed is sown in the month of June
on a piece of land called the "seeding-plot," whe