15. What punishment can be provided by municipal ordinances?

16. What plan does the Government follow with reference to crime? What is done with persons convicted of crimes? 17. Define parole. What is pardon?

18. Name the prisons and penal colonies. Describe Bilibid Prison. What is the aim in Bilibid Prison?

19. Describe the Iwahig Penal Colony.

20. Describe the San Ramon Penal Farm.

21. Describe Bontoc Prison.

22. Is there a provincial or municipal jail in your municipality? If there is, describe it.

23. What duties do we have in connection with the maintenance of law and order?

CHAPTER VIII

AGRICULTURE AND NATURAL RESOURCES

63. Importance. If one were asked to name the most important chapter in this book, it would be difficult to choose correctly. But finally, he would answer "Agriculture."

The Philippines is essentially an agricultural country. Probably it will always remain so. Most Filipinos depend directly on agriculture for their living, while those who do not cultivate the land depend upon it for their food. The Philippines has rich natural resources, including fertile lands, forests, mines, and fisheries. The problem, then, is to protect and develop our agriculture and natural resources.

64. Farming.—To be a farmer is to follow an honorable and a useful vocation. The successful farmer is practically independent of others. He leads a healthy and an active life. And, finally, farming is the occupation on which almost all others depend, for the products of the farm are necessary to life and they form the chief source of our incomes.

The world wants to buy Philippine abaca (Manila hemp), copra, tobacco, sugar, and other products. The Philippines, for its own good, should supply these products in large quantities, and also produce at least sufficient rice and corn for its own needs.

65. Assistance to Farming by the Bureau of Agriculture. The Philippine Government is very much interested in helping the farmer and in encouraging people to become farmers. The Bureau of Agriculture, as the name indicates, is charged with the duty of developing Philippine agriculture. It has, among other officials, agricultural extension agents and veterinarians who are always glad to advise and assist farmers.

The Government tries first to protect the products of the farm and the animals necessary for farming. Plant diseases are harmful and must be eradicated or at least checked. Sometimes trees or plants must be entirely destroyed in order to prevent the spread of diseases, as in

the case of coconut budrot. We must all help to fight and kill locusts even though they are not near our own land.

Animal diseases are also harmful, and the most dangerous of all is rinderpest. This disease attacks cattle and carabaos, the principal work animals of the Islands, which number over one million, causing the death of thousands every year. No cure has as yet been discovered for rinderpest.

The enforcement of strict quarantines of all sick and exposed animals is the best method yet known to prevent the spread of this disease. The success of quarantines depends on the early isolation of the attacked animals and those in contact with them. Hiding of sick animals by the farmers are, in many instances, the cause of the rapid spread of the disease and is responsible for the failure of quarantine.

The Government also tries to educate farmers through the Bureau of Agriculture so that they will make use of modern methods of farming. For this purpose, the Bureau collects and distributes useful information pertaining to agriculture. The Philippine Farmer, a monthly magazine devoted to the interests of the farmers and the advancement of agriculture, and bulletins and circulars are published by the Bureau of Agriculture. In The Philippine Agricultural Review, a technical paper published quarterly, are recorded the results of such experiments of the Bureau of Agriculture as are successful. Nurseries and breeding stations are maintained by many provinces for the reproduction and distribution of fruit

trees, improved animals, and agricultural products. At these stations farmers can study and observe the best methods of planting and cultivation.

The Government, finally, endeavors to develop and improve agriculture. Irrigation systems to furnish the necessary water for farming are built. The experiment stations and farms of the Bureau of Agriculture provide

a better quality of seeds and plants, as well as livestock and poultry. These seeds, plants, and animals are then distributed throughout the Philippines. The farmer who uses specially selected seeds and plants and improved breeds of animals will certainly obtain better results. The fibers of abaca, maguey, and sisal are assorted according to quality in order that the farmers may receive better