burned before the scratching occurs, but if it is cultivated annually
the surface seldom has any care save the shallow work of the su-wan';
in fact, the surface stones are seldom removed.

In the season of 1903, the first rains came April 5, and the first
mountain sementera was scratched over for millet April 10, after five
successive daily rains.



Fertilizing

Much care is taken in fertilizing the irrigated sementeras. The hog
of a few pueblos in the Bontoc area, as in Bontoc and Samoki, is kept
confined all its life in a walled, stone-paved sty dug in the earth
(see Pl. LXXVII). Into this inclosure dry grasses and dead vines are
continually placed to absorb and become rotted by the liquids. As the
soil of the sementera is turned for the new rice crop these pigsties
are cleaned out and the rich manure spread on the beds.

The manure is sometimes carried by women though generally by men,
and the carriers in a string pass all day between the sementeras and
the pueblo, each bearing his transportation basket on his shoulder
containing about 100 pounds of as good fertilizer as agricultural
man ever thought to employ.

The manure is gathered from the sties with the two hands and is dumped
in the sementera in 10-pound piles about 5 feet apart after the soil
has been turned and trod soft and even.