fruitful years a part of the harvest is lost. The rice is cut halm by
halm (as in Java) with a peculiarly-formed knife, or, failing such,
with the sharp-edged flap of a mussel [108] found in the ditches of
the rice-fields, which one has only to stoop to pick up.

[Rice land production.] A quiñon of the best rice land is worth from
sixty to one hundred dollars ($5.50 to $9 per acre). Rice fields on
rising grounds are dearest, as they are not exposed to devastating
floods as are those in the plain, and may be treated so as to insure
the ripening of the fruit at the time when the highest price is to
be obtained.

[The harvest.] A ganta of rice is sufficient to plant four topones
(1 topon = 1 loan); from which 100 manojos (bundles) are gathered,
each of which yields half a ganta of rice. The old ganta of Naga,
however, being equal to a modern ganta and a half, the produce
may be calculated at 75 cavanes per quiñon, about 9 3/4 bushels per
acre. [109] In books 250 cavanes are usually stated to be the average
produce of a quiñon; but that is an exaggeration. The fertility of
the fields certainly varies very much; but, when it is considered
that the land in the Philippines is never fertilized, but depends,
for the maintenance of its vitality, exclusively upon the overflowing
of the mud which is washed down from the mountains, it may be believed
that the first numbers better express the true average. In Java the
harvest, in many provinces, amounts to only 50 cavanes per quiñon;
in some, indeed, to three times this amount; and in China, with the
most careful culture and abundant manure, to 180 cabanes. [110]
[Sweet potatoes.] Besides rice, they cultivate the camote (sweet
potato, Convolvulus batatas). This flourishes like a weed; indeed,
it is sometimes planted for the purpose of eradicating the weeds from