RICE
Francisco used to go with his father and uncles to the rice fields,
where he would watch the carabao while the men worked. A great deal
of hard labor is necessary to raise a crop of rice. First, the seed
must be sown in a plot of ground called a seed bed, where it is left
alone for five or six weeks until the plants have grown several inches
high. During this time the men are busy plowing the field and getting
the ground ready for the second planting. This is a very hard and
disagreeable task, because the work has to be done in mud and water,
the men sometimes wading up to their knees in the slimy black mud
while guiding the plow.
When the ground has been thoroughly stirred and is well under water,
the young plants are taken out of the seed bed, cut back a few inches,
and replanted in the field. This is also very tiresome work, for each
rice plant must be thrust into the soft mud by hand. Men, women,
and children come out for this part of the planting, roll up their
clothes beyond the reach of mud or water, and, with backs bent low,
move slowly across the fields, setting out the young rice plants.
Rice grows well only when it is kept flooded, and this is done by
means of ditches that lead from near-by streams. Great pieces of sod
are thrown up in long rows, forming a sort of dike that holds the
water and separates the fields into divisions called paddies. These
long strips of sod are used as a pathway by persons who need to cross
the fields and wish to remain dry.
Before many days, the young plants are growing, tall and green,
and the field makes a beautiful appearance as the wind sweeps across
it. In about five or six months the green has turned to a rich yellow;
the rice is then ripe and ready for the harvest. Again the men, women,
and children go out to the fields armed with sickles to gather in the
precious crop. Again they move slowly across the level ground,--dry
now,--with backs bent low, gathering in the grain that is to furnish
them food for months to come. The rice bundles are piled on carts,
the carabao strain at their yokes, and the loads go off to the house
to be carefully stored away, for use when needed.
When Francisco's mother wanted rice for cooking, she went down the
bamboo steps, unfastened the door that led to the store-room under
the house, and, taking several bundles into the yard, she laid them
on a petate spread on the ground. Then, stepping out of her chinelas
(chi-ne'-läs), or slippers, she trod upon the heads of grain until
she had separated the rice from the stalk. The next thing needed was
to get rid of the chaff. To do this, she put several handfuls of the
grains into a flat tray, and, by carefully throwing the seeds into the
air and catching them again in the tray, the chaff was blown away,
leaving the clean, fresh rice grains all ready for cooking. Another
way to do this is by pounding the rice in a wooden mortar until the
seed is well separated from the hulls. Sometimes rice flour is made
in these mortars, and bread is baked; but the most common way of
cooking is by boiling.
Filipinos eat rice three times a day, and no meal is really complete
without it. They like it boiled very dry, and a large plate of it is
always placed beside one's regular plate to be eaten with the meal,
much as we eat bread. It is interesting to know that so much rice
is eaten in the Philippine Islands that large quantities must be
shipped in from China in addition to what is raised by the Filipinos
themselves.
The most commonly raised rice is almost pure white, but there is one
variety grown in certain parts of the Philippines whose grains are
red and whose flavor is different from the white variety.
Not all the rice grown in the Philippine Islands needs the extensive
irrigation that was described earlier in the chapter; there is a
kind of rice that grows with only a moderate amount of moisture. It
is produced on the steep mountain slopes where irrigation would be
impossible or extremely difficult.