Camotes are also transplanted. The women cut or pick off the "runners"
from the perpetual vines in the sementeras near the dwellings. These
they transplant in the unirrigated mountain sementeras after the
crops of millet and maize have been gathered.
The irrigated sementeras are also planted to camotes by transplanting
from these house beds. This transplanting lasts about six weeks in
Bontoc, beginning near the middle of July.
Some little sugar cane is grown by the Igorot of the Bontoc area. It
is claimed to grow up each year from the roots left at the preceding
harvest. At times new patches of cane are started by transplanting
shoots from the parent plants. It is said that in January the stalks
are cut and set in a rich mud, and that in the season of Baliling,
from about July 15 until early in September, the rooted shoots are
transplanted to the new beds.
Cultivating
The chief cultivation given to Igorot crops is bestowed on rice,
though all cultivated lands are remarkably free from weeds. The rice
sementeras are carefully weeded, "suckers" are pulled out, and the
beds are thinned generally, so that each plant will have all needful
chance to develop fruit. This weeding and thinning is the work of
women and half-grown children.
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