The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1899-07-20
&ARN FOR PACIFIC OUR VOLCANIC ERUPTION COUNTRY AROUND MANILA LOAD N@WR HORSES COMPROMISE DECISION
SOLDIER WRITES OF FGLIPINOs
AND CUSTOMS.
Primitive Methods of Agriculture.
Some Biblical Plowing--D
of Breast Works.
Special correspondence of The star

Special correspondence of The Star.
h MANILA, May 3.-The Quingua river
valley is the best and most fertile part
of the province of Bulucan. All the
towns have large stores of rice and In
dian corn. The corn is of the yellow flint
variety. Corn, tobacco and sugar cane
are raised on the alluvial soils along
the river and rice on the heavy clay soil.
The little gardens are badly cultivated,
and In them are found inferior varie-
ties of squashes, peppers, egg plant,
radishes, sweet potatoes, yams and to-
matoes.
Between San Rafael and Baluiag are
many small plantations of cocoa, citrus
trees badly infested with scale, a few
coffee trees, many ylang ylang trees,
from the blossom of which the per-
fume is made. There are also many
cotton trees. The largest cotton trees
are forty feet high and foot i'm dia-
meter, and bear large pods, which con-
tain true cotton, used for stutfing pill
lows. II is not suitable for manufac-
turing purposes.
The poorer class of natives make no
attempt to grow flowers. The better
class have hibiscus, coleas, camelia,
crotons and many unfamiliar tropical
plants in the gardens. The agricultur-
al methods are primitive. In a thirty
| four day trip through the best part of
! the provinces we did not see modern
agricultural implement, and none are
| for sale in Manila.
The Filipino uses q wooden plow of
the type used in bible times. 1t has one
handle and makes a furrow two inches
| deep and four inches wide. A water
buffalo or caraboo with crooked stick
over his neck, with ropes leading to the
plow, is the motive power The ma
| tive holds the plow handle with his
|
which goes through the animals nos
| trils, and controls the caraboo. The
| Filipino smokes a cigarette and carries
another above his right ear. A clumsy
| harrow of rough poles and heavy
! home made hoe are the other farming
! utensils. The "bolo" or native knife is
carried by all natives and used for agrl-
cultural, horticultural and homicidal
purposes.
Baluiag is a large town of about 20,
900 people; has a big stone church,
loopholed for rifles, block house, the
residences of former Spanish officials
| The rest of the houses are of bamboo
and nipa and are mostly of the shack
/ order
A fine military road connects Sef
Rafael and Baluiag, seven miles dis
tant and crossing the Iumgua river al
| Baluiag by a ford continues to the rail-
road at Malolos. There is a fine quail
ity of gravel in all streams to make
good roads and ballast railroads al over
LuZon Island
The insurgents had constructed great
trenches and breastWorlls with bamboo
tubes to shot through. These were OF
the MalOlos road and the approach OF
! Lawton's division from San Rafae
made the trenches useless. The rebel:
are very sensitive about their retreat
being cut off and under a heavy tlanl
fire leave earth works 1t has taker
them weeks to construct. The entir,
country is full of trenches. There arr
hundreds of miles of them, They ar,
in fields, near the towns, along botl
banks of the rivers, and in the province
of Pampangu. In addition to the abOv
every back yard has a trench. The dis
tances from the trenches to trees
bushes or other prominent objects ha
been measured to get the range, and Ol
open ground poles have been set up 10
meters apart in some places. There ar
as many as fifteen of these poles in on
line, which enables them to do SOM
close shooting. The first volleys ar
always the most dangerous. After tn
Americans commence firing the Fill
pinos do not look over the top of tn
trench but stick up the rifle and fir
mostly at random. The earth on to
of the trenches is usually powde
burned.
j. h. FINLEY,
SarOOd Opppop