per cent. stolen from the owner's share.

Paddy-planting is not a lucrative commercial undertaking, and few
take it up on a large scale. None of the large millers employing
steam power are, at the same time, grain cultivators. There is this
advantage about the business, that the grower is less likely to be
confronted with the labour difficulty, for the work of planting out
and gathering in the crop is, to the native and his family, a congenial
occupation. Rice-cultivation is, indeed, such a poor business for the
capitalist that perhaps a fortune has never been made in that sole
occupation, but it gives a sufficient return to the actual tiller
of his own land. The native woman is often quite as clever as her
husband in managing the estate hands, for her tongue is usually as
effective as his rattan. I venture to say there are not six white
men living who, without Philippine wives, have made fortunes solely
in agriculture in these Islands.

CHAPTER XVII

Manila Hemp--Coffee--Tobacco

_Hemp_ (_Musa textilis_)--referred to by some scientific
writers as _M. troglodytarum_--is a wild species of the plantain
(_M. paradisiaca_) found growing in many parts of the Philippine
Islands. It so closely resembles the _M. paradisiaca,_ which bears
the well-known and agreeable fruit--the edible banana, that only
connoisseurs can perceive the difference in the density of colour and
size of the green leaves--those of the hemp-plant being of a somewhat
darker hue, and shorter. The fibre of a number of species of _Musa_
is used for weaving, cordage, etc., in tropical countries.

This herbaceous plant seems to thrive best on an inclined plane,
for nearly all the wild hemp which I have seen has been found on
mountain slopes, even far away down the ravines. Although requiring a
considerable amount of moisture, hemp will not thrive in swampy land,
and to attain any great height it must be well shaded by other trees
more capable of bearing the sun's rays. A great depth of soil is not
indispensable for its development, as it is to be seen flourishing
in its natural state on the slopes of volcanic formation. In Albay
Province it grows on the declivities of the Mayon Volcano.

The hemp-tree in the Philippines reaches an average height of 10
feet. It is an endogenous plant, the stem of which is enclosed in
layers of half-round petioles. The hemp-fibre is extracted from these
petioles, which, when cut down, are separated into strips, fiv