Primitive Machines, and Importance of the Rice Crop.
No rice-husking, winnowing or pearling-machines are in use in the Philippines other than some small ones for domestic use. The great number of kinds of rice-paddy hinders their use on a large scale, since the mill adapted to one field would not clean the crop of another. The grain is generally husked in a large hard-wood mortar, where it is beaten with a pestle, several men and women at times working over one mortar. There is also in use a primitive wooden mill worked by buffaloes. In this a series of pins engage with each other, causing a column to lift and fall, thereby serving as a pestle as it falls. Steam and water-power have recently been brought into use in some localities.
It is said that one quinon (about seven acres) of land will yield from 250 to 300 cavans (about 96 pounds each) of rice, but the yield could be greatly increased if a system of irrigation were generally in use. At present, the dependence is largely on the rains. The yield from seed varies from 40 to 100 grains of crop to one seed, 50 grains being a good average. A family of five persons will consume about 250 pounds of rice per month. It is used in almost every native dish, and takes the place of bread. The paddy, or unhulled rice, is to feed horses, cattle, and fowls.
It may be said in conclusion, that the rice and sugar planters have many insect enemies to contend against. One of the worst is the locust, which makes its appearance at times in overwhelming multitudes, and whose ravages I have elsewhere described. In some degree it replaces the food it destroys, the natives cooking and eating their foes, and in some districts, looking upon them as a luxury whose coming is worth praying for.
The average annual production of rice is a million and a half piculs, and almost a million piculs are imported.
