Note 17 — I. Agriculture and Landholding at the Time of the Discovery and Conquest

See Chapter II, as to evidences of prosperity of the Filipinos at the time of the coming of the Spaniards.

Caing̃in system described: “They reported that the country was so fertile that when natives desired to plant their rice they only burn a part of the mountain and, without any further plowing or digging, they make holes with a stick in the soil, and drop some grains of rice in them. This was their manner of sowing; and, after covering the rice with the same earth, they obtained very heavy crops.” (Historia de la Provincia del Santo Rosario de la Orden de Predicadores, Diego Aduarte, O. P., Manila, 1640.—Bl. and Rb., Vol. 32, p. 199.)