Page:The National Geographic Magazine Vol 16 1905.djvu/271

Rh 1,000 pesos. The greater part of this was absorbed by the rector, who was usually the priest stationed at Agana, and by the running expenses of the school, which were the subsistence and wages paid to janitor, porter, steward, doctor, and the lighting of the building. The people are essentially agricultural. There are few masters and few servants on the island. As a rule the farms are not too extensive to be cultivated by the family, all of whom, even the little children, lend a hand. Often the owners of neighboring farms work together in communal fashion, one day on A's corn, the next day on B's, and so on, laughing, singing, and skylarking at their work and stopping whenever they feel so inclined to take a drink of tuba from a bamboo vessel hanging to a neighboring cocoanut tree. Each does his share without constraint, nor will he indulge so freely in tuba as to incapacitate himself for work, for experience has taught the necessity of temperance, and every one must do his share if the services are to be reciprocal. In the evening they separate, each going to his own rancho to feed his bullock, pigs, and chickens. After a good supper they lie down for the night on a pandanus mat spread over an elastic platform of split bamboo.

None of the natives depends for his livelihood on his handiwork or on trade alone. There are men who can make shoes, tan leather, and cut stone for building purposes, but such a thing as a Chamorro shoemaker, tanner, stone mason, or merchant who supports his family by his trade is unknown. In the midst of building a stone wall the man who has consented to help do the work will probably say, "Excuse me, Señor, but I must go to my rancho for three or four days; the weeds are getting ahead of my corn." And when lime is needed the native to whom one is directed may say, "After I have finished gathering my cocoanuts for copra I will get my boys to cut wood and gather limestone to make a kiln. Never fear, Senor, you shall have your lime within six weeks." On one occasion a blacksmith was delayed two weeks in making a plow owing to the fact that the man from whom he got his charcoal had been so busy supplying visiting vessels with fruits and vegetables that he could not find time to burn it.

THE MILCH GOAT THE Department of Agriculture has been so successful in its experiment of introducing the beautiful Angora goat into this country, by means of which an industry worth several million dollars has been created, that it is now trying to arouse an inter- est in the milch goat. Every traveler in Europe is familiar with the sturdy little animal, which does not hesitate to climb to the attic of a dwelling and when sev- eral stories up allow itself to be milked. It is estimated that Germany owns about 3,000,000 of these animals, that they are worth about $12,000,000, and yield milk and kids each year worth $36,000,000, or three times their original value.

A good goat gives four or five quarts of milk daily. It can eat many kinds of herbage, so that its keep is not a diffi- cult nor expensive problem. The milk is believed to be richer and freer of tu- berculosis than cow's milk, and if kept clean is not odorous. Families living in crowded suburbs may find a solution of the milk problem in keeping milch goats.