btained here from the wild plant, and
is of an excellent quality. Upwards of three thousand five hundred
piculs are now exported, of which one-sixth goes to the United States.

[Sugar.] The sugar-cane thrives well here. It is planted after the
French fashion, by sticking the piece diagonally into the ground. Some,
finding the cane has suffered in times of drought, have adopted other
modes. It comes to perfection in a year, and they seldom have two
crops from the same piece of land, unless the season is very favorable.

There are many kinds of cane cultivated, but that grown in the valley
of Pampanga is thought to be the best. It is a small red variety, from
four to five feet high, and not thicker than the thumb. The manufacture
of the sugar is rudely conducted; and the whole business, I was told,
was in the hands of a few capitalists, who, by making advances, secure
the whole crop from those who are employed to bring it to market. It
is generally brought in moulds, of the usual conical shape, called
pilones, which are delivered to the purchaser from November to June,
and contain each about one hundred and fifty pounds. On their receipt,
they are placed in large storehouses, where the familiar operation
of claying is performed. The estimate for the quantity of sugar
from these pilones after this process is about one hundred pounds;
it depends upon the care taken in the process.

[Cotton.] Of cotton they raise a considerable quantity, which is of a
fine quality, and principally of the yellow nankeen. In the province
of Ilocos it is cultivated most extensively. The mode of cleaning it
of its seed is very rude, by means of a hand-mill, and the expense of
cleaning a picul (one hundred and forty pounds) is from five to seven
dollars. There have, as far as I have understood, been no endeavors
to introduce any cotton-gins from our country.

[Wages.] It will be merely necessary to give the prices at which
laborers are paid, to show how low the compensation is, in comparison
with those in our own country. In the vicinity of Manila, twelve and
a half cents per day is the usual wages; this in the provinces falls
to six and nine cents. A man with two buffaloes is paid about thirty
cents. The amount of labor performed by the latter in a day would
be the ploughing of a soane, about two-tenths of an acre. The most
profitable way of employing laborers is by the task, when, it is said,
the natives work well, and are industrious.

Th