[65] The quiñón = 2.79495 hectares = 6.89 acres. (Official Handbook of Philippines, p. 294; Jagor’s Reisen, p. xv.) Jagor has balístas for balitans, and Mallat has baletas.—Eds. [↑]
[66] Since January 1, 1862, the caban of Manila (established January 1, 1860) is regarded as the standard measure for all the provinces. It measures exactly 75 liters, or, in cubical form, 422 mm., inside measure, or 5,990.96 Spanish cubic inches. (The caban of 1859 contained 80.00919 liters.) A caban of rice weighs 128 to 137 Spanish pounds = 59 to 63 kilograms.” (Jagor’s Reisen, p. xv.)—Eds. [↑]
[67] The table here referred to is as follows:
“Estimate of the cost and annual product of one cabalita of land planted with sugar-cane in the province of Pampanga; to wit:
| p. | r. | gr. | |
| For plowing the said land 6 times | 1 | 4 | |
| For breaking the clumps with the balsa 3 times | 6 | ||
| For the surrounding fence and rattan 3 p. 5 r., and three days’ work 3 r. 9 gr. | 4 | 9 | |
| For 4,000 cane-shoots for planting, 1 p.; tracing the lines and making the holes, 5 r.; two days’ work at planting, 2 r. 6 gr. | 1 | 7 | 6 |
| For fencing twice more, and cutting out the grass | 6 | ||
| For 14 moulds, at 1½ r. | 2 | 5 | |
| For 1½ tareas [= amount of mill’s capacity at one time], each of 14 loaves [pilones] of sugar, the amount usually obtained, at 8 p. a tarea | 12 | ||
| Total cost | 23 | 5 | 3 |
| Selling price of a loaf of sugar, averaging those of the three grades | 2 | 6 | 6 |
| Deduct cost of each loaf, at the rate of | 1 | 6 | 1 |
| Net product, equivalent to 90 per cent profit | 1 | 3 | 2” |
Comyn gives similar tables for the production of indigo and rice, estimating the net profit thereon at 57 and 60 per cent respectively. He adds, on the margin of the sheet: “In favorable years the profit of the grower is wont to increase in an extraordinary manner. The 4,000 shoots of sugar-cane, for instance, yield him 3 tareas, or 28 loaves of sugar, in place of the 14 loaves which were figured in the comparative estimate preceding; the cavan of seed yields 80 and even 100 cavans of rice in the hull, in place of the 35 computed; and he obtains a quintal of indigo from 15, or even from 10, balsadas, instead of 25 being necessary for furnishing the said product. And if the grower is fairly well-to-do, so that he can send his produce to the general market, and sell it to the foreign merchants or ship-captains who come for these products, he can obtain incomparably more for them than by delivering them upon the ground to the middlemen. At Manila I have seen indigo from La Laguna sold at the rate of 130 pesos a quintal for extra fine grade, and at 100 pesos for the usual quality; sugar, at 4p. 5r. a loaf; and palay (or rice in the hull) at 3 pesos; but I have preferred to limit myself to a low rate in the selling price which I have assigned to the aforesaid products in the preceding estimates, in order to demonstrate more thoroughly the advantages which agriculture offers in Filipinas, and at the same time to conform to practical experience in the formation of estimates of this sort.” Cf. similar estimates by Mallat (Philippines, ii, pp. 256–281.—Eds. [↑]
[68] Pilones are large bell-shaped moulds, from 2 to 2½ feet high, and 1½ broad. [↑]
[69] Some of their voyages are most curious. One or more of the principal men in a village, sometimes 15 or 20 of them, join to build a small “parao.” On this they embark with their harvest in sugar, cacao, wax, &c., sell it at Manila, and return to their village; there the accounts are settled, and the return cargo distributed; after which a feast is held, and the Santo duly thanked for the good markets of this year, and asked for better next. All parties then visit the vessel, which they pull to pieces! every man carrying a piece home with him—to take care of till next season, when they are all sewed together for another trip. [↑]
[70] At the present time there are six varieties of sugar-cane in Filipinas; of these, the purple is considered the best, and is more generally cultivated in the Visayas; the white and the green are almost exclusively restricted to some provinces of Luzon and the rural districts near Manila; the other kinds are cultivated sparingly and in few places. The sugar manufactured in the islands is “made in pilones (which includes nearly all from Luzon), and the granulated, which is the kind that has been adopted in the Visayan islands and in some Luzon plantations.” The pilon weighs a quintal; the granulated is put up in sacks (known as bayones, containing two and a half arrobas of sugar. (José R. de Luzuriaga, in Census of Philippines, iv, pp. 26, 27).—Eds. [↑]
[71] These last, by a royal Cedula (ordonnance), are only admitted into the island as cultivators. This, like almost every ordonnance of His Catholic Majesty, relative to this country, is disregarded; and the Chinese are almost all shopkeepers, or petty merchants. Were an impartial account of the administration of these islands to be presented to the king of Spain, it might begin thus: “Sire,—Not one of your Majesty’s orders are executed in your kingdom of the Philippines.”[72] [↑]