third-quality need not
exceed 5 to 6 per cent. of the whole produced. In short, the question
of quality in _Abaca_ has vastly less relation to the species of the
plant than to the care taken in its extraction and manipulation.

The Chinese very actively collect parcels of hemp from the smallest
class of native owners, but they also enter into contracts which
bring discredit to the reputation of a province as a hemp-producing
district. For a small sum in cash a Chinaman acquires from a native
the right to work his plantation during a short period. Having no
proprietary interest at stake, and looking only to his immediate
gain, he indiscriminately strips plants, regardless of maturity,
and the property reverts to the small owner in a sorely dilapidated
condition. The market result is that, although the fibre drawn may be
white, it is weak, therefore dealings with the Chinese require special
scrutiny. Under the native system each labourer on an "estate" (called
in Albay Province _late_) is remunerated by receiving one-half of all
the fibre he draws; the other half belongs to the _late_ owner. The
share corresponding to the labourer is almost invariably delivered
at the same time to the employer, who purchases it at the current
local value--often at much less.

In sugar-planting, as no sugar can be hoped for until the fixed
grinding-season of the year, planters have to advance to their
workpeople during the whole twelve months in Luzon, under the
_aparcero_ system. If, after so advancing during six or eight months,
he loses half or more of his crop by natural causes, he stands a poor
chance of recovering his advances of that year. There is no such risk
in the case of hemp; when a man wants money he can work for it, and
bring in his bundle of fibre and receive his half-share value. The
few foreigners engaged in hemp-planting usually employ wage labour.

In Manila the export-houses estimate the prices of second and third
qualities by a rebate from first-class quality price. These rates
necessarily fluctuate. When the deliveries of second and third
qualities go on increasing in their proportion to the quantity of
first-class sent to the market, the rebate for lower qualities on
the basis price (first-class) is consequently augmented. If the total
supplies to Manila began to show an extraordinarily large proportionate
increase of lower qualities, these differences of prices would be made
wider, and in this manner indirect p