CARRETÓN OR FREIGHT CART DRAWN BY A CARABAO," DRIVEN BY A NATIVE "CARRETONERO" OR CARTMAN. The baskets on the cart are made of cane and are called "báquit." No. 9.-The carabao or water buffalo is the draught animal of the Philippines. He was probably imported originally from India. He is very dependent on his daily mud bath, and will seldom work without it for more than a couple of hours during the heat of the day. He is a wonderful swimmer, and does not hesitate to cross 10 miles of open sea. His hide is exceedingly tough, and a valuable leather is prepared from it, but the flesh is not highly esteemed. HARROWING A FIELD FOR RICE. No. 10.-Plowing the rice fields is too heavy work for the small Filipino pony, so the carabao is the only animal available for this purpose in the Philippines. The carabao has not, however, the strength and endurance one would expect from an animal of such huge bulk. If pushed too hard, he is apt to collapse and die of the heat, STACKING RICE. No. 11.-Dean C. Worcester states that the carabao has a great prejudice against the smell of a white man, and that in a secluded native village he has sometimes stampeded half the buffaloes in a place by simply walking along its main street. pelago. Eighteen thousand two hundred and fifty packages of field and garden seeds, including 134 varieties, have been distributed to them. It has been proved that fairly good Irish potatoes and peas will grow in the lowlands near Manila. Beets also do well in the same locality, and radishes are ready for the table in three to four weeks after planting. Improved varieties of oranges and lemons brought from California are flourishing. A new species of wild grape has been discovered in the island of Negros. An effort is being made to improve it sufficiently for cultivation, as no grapes to speak of have heretofore been grown on the islands. Fiftytwo fiber-producing plants are known to exist in the Philippines, but only two of these have been of commercial value. Experts are experimenting to see whether some of the other fifty varieties may not also be profitable. These are only some of the practical devices of the government to better conditions. The wasteful methods of the different industries-such as the guttapercha, the tobacco, the sugar cane, and the hemp-at present causing a loss of fully 50 per cent in the product, are being corrected by educating the Filipino to a more economical and hence more profitable system. An experiment station for the growing of rice on a large scale is being established. The present Filipino method of rice growing seems ridiculously antiquated. Every blade of the millions of stalks on a large rice plantation is now planted by hand. The labor is most exhausting, since it must be done in stooping posture, either under the burning sun reflected from the muddy water or under a mighty downpour of rain. Looking over the paddy fields in the month of October, it seems incredible that every blade was planted by hand. An effort is to be made to introduce the American drill for planting. Modern farming implements are being intro duced and their use taught the natives. An extensive stock farm for the breeding of draft and dairy animals is also being established. The funds for these experiment stations are advanced by the government, but the stations are intended to be and will doubtless soon become self-supporting. Professor Worcester believes that the agricultural opportunities in the Philippines for young Americans are considerable. Only a small part of the soil capable of producing sugar, hemp, and tobacco is under cultivation. Large areas of government lands are admirably adapted to the cultivation of cocoanuts, for which there is a large and profitable demand. profitable demand. The trees can be grown readily and with comparatively little danger of loss. Under existing conditions, the minimum annual profit from a fairly good bearing tree is $1 Mexican, and frequently two or three times this amount is realized. Other crops, such as Indian corn and alfalfa, can be grown between the rows of cocoanut trees while the latter are maturing, and used to fatten hogs, which always bring a good price in the Philippine market. The demand for copra in these islands is greatly in excess of the supply and is steadily increasing, while cocoanut oil now sells readily in Manila at $1.25 Mexican per gallon. The lands along the coast of Mindanao and Paragua are particularly favorable to cocoanut growing, and in the latter island trees are said to come to bearing in four years. No other country has climate and soil so favorable to cacao growing as Mindanao. The cacao now produced in that island is of superior quality and is nearly all bought up for shipment to Spain, where it brings an especially high price. There are numerous other regions in the islands where cacao can be raised to great advantage, but there is not today a cacao plantation in the archipelago, the Filipinos having almost invariably con PRIMITIVE AGRICULTURE. TAGBANUA WOMEN HARVESTING RICE, CALAMINANES ISLANDS. No. 12. The inhabitants of the Calaminanes group 'spend most of their time in gathering edible birds' nests, sea cucumbers, turtles, shells, and a few pearls, which they sell to passing vessels. Their agricultural methods are exceedingly backward, though the soil of their islands is very fertile, |