It is said that in some sections of Igorot land dry vegetable matter
is burned so that ash may be had for fertilizing purposes.

I have seen women working long, dry grass under the soil in camote
sementeras at the time the crop was being gathered (Pl. LXIV),
but I believe fertilizers are seldom employed, except where rice
is grown. Mountain-side sementeras are frequently abandoned after
a few years' service, as they are supposed to be exhausted, whereas
fertilization would restore them.


Seed planting

Pad-cho-kan' is the name of the sementera used as a rice seed bed. One
or more small groups of sementeras in every pueblo is so protected from
the cold rains and winds of November and December and is so exposed to
the warm sun that it answers well the purposes of a primitive hotbed;
consequently it becomes such, and anyone who asks permission of the
owner may plant his seed there (see Pl. LXV).

The seed is planted in the beds after they have been thoroughly
worked and softened, the soil usually being turned three times. The
planting in Bontoc occurs the first part of November. November 15,
1902, the rice had burst its kernel and was above water in the Bontoc
beds. The seed is not shelled before planting, but the full fruit
heads, sin-lu'-wi, are laid, without covering, on the soft ooze, under
3 or 4 inches of water. They are laid in rows a few inches apart,
and are so close together that by the time the young plants are 3
inches above the surface of the water the bed is a solid mass of green.