Geographic area
Number of sementeras
Number of cargoes produced

Magkang 6 15

Kogchog 3 5

Felas 1 8

Toyub 1 5

Samuiyu 2 10

Total 13 43

These sementeras produce the low average of 3 1/3 cargoes.  The average value of Mang-i-lot’s’ sementeras, then, is 33 1/3 pesos —­ which is thought to be a conservative estimate of the value of the Bontoc sementera.  Mang-i-lot’ is rated among the lesser rich men.  He is relatively, as the American says, “well-to-do.”  However, when a man possesses twenty sementeras he is considered rich.

The richest man in Bontoc, with one hundred sementeras, has in them, say, 3,330 pesos worth of real property in addition to his 6,340 pesos of personal property.

It is claimed that each household owns its dwelling and at least two sementeras and one granary, though a man with no more property than this is a poor man and some one in his family must work much of the time for wages, because two average sementeras will not furnish all the rice needed by a family for food.

A dwelling house is valued at about 60 pesos, which is less than it usually costs to build, and a granary is valued at about 10 or 15 pesos.  It is constructed with great care, is valueless unless rodent proof, and costs much more than its avowed valuation.

Title to all buildings, building lands in the pueblo, and irrigated rice lands is recognized for at least two generations, though unoccupied during that time.  They say the right to such unoccupied property would be recognized perpetually if there were heirs.  At least it is true that there are now acres of unused lands, once palay sementeras, which have not been cultivated for two generations because water can not be run to them, and the property right of the grandsons of the men who last cultivated them is recognized.  However, if one leaves vacant any unirrigated agricultural mountain lands —­ used for millet, maize, or beans —­ another person may claim and plant them in one year’s time, and no one disputes his title.

Real property of group

All real property accumulated by a man and woman in marriage is their joint property as long as both live and remain in union.

No form of real property, except forests, can be the joint property of other individuals than man and wife.  Forests are most commonly the property of a considerable group of people —­ the descendants of a single ancestral owner.  The lands as well as the trees are owned, and the sale of trees carries no right to the land on which they grow.  It is impossible even to estimate the value of any one’s forest property, but it is true that persons are recognized as rich or poor in forests.

Public property