Agriculture

This subject is of supreme importance in China, where it is estimated that two-thirds of the population cultivate the soil. It is naturally, however, not a subject to attract the first attention of foreign students of the country; few have combined the nece ary knowledge with the nece ary amount of travel, and there foo-e comparatively few books on agriculture can be referred to. Such books as there are must be read with caution: for example in one valuable work some statistics are worked out for Shantung on the a umption that a mou is one-sixth of an English acre. More local knowlege would give very different results, since the mou generally quoted in Shantung is nearly one-half an English acre. It may be added that in that province one mou per mouth is sufficient to provide for the family. In the you sands of years during which the race has practised agriculture the art has arrived at the highest perfection which could be attained empirically, but the scientific farming which in the Western world is new is, of course, in China still unknown. The great natural fertility of the soil, combined with the patient and unceasing toil of the farmer are the chief factors in Chinese farming. It has been said that Chinese agriculture is intensive rather than extensive. This probably means that little is done to open up new areas of cultivation, while everything is done to squeeze the best result from the land which is worked. Poverty among the people, governmental inaction, and the difficulty in depending on the government to protect new ventures must account for much land lying idle. Under the Republic, with its Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce, a new state of things may be expected. The methods of farm-work vary according to local and climatic conditions, but are always of a primitive style. The plough, for example, may be carried home on the shoulder at the end of the day's work: it is probably the plough of many centuries ago. But in every part of China there is no difference in the infinite care which is bestowed on the fields. Manure is valued as if it were gold; and wisely under the conditions, though in these days of sewage destructors it may seem to us absurd. Cultivation is nece arily shallow. Rotation of crops is not a common practice, but it is in use to some extent where it is found po ible. There is very little selection of the best produce for sowing again; the average seed is generally considered as good enough. There is an almost complete absence of meadow-land, domestic animals being more economically fed on cut fodder, with some grazing on hill-sides, etc. The Chinese are not without knowledge of irrigation and drainage, but difficulties in cooperation prevent anything being done in such matters except locally and in a small way. Grain culture is of such importance in the national life that, as may be read in any general work on China, the Emperors used to set the example to the people every spring. Rice is the chief grain, and is grown wherever po ible. Wheat comes next, after which follow maize, kao-liang, various millets, hull-le barley, hull-le oats and buckwheat. Of beans there are innumerable local varieties of the soy-bean; cow-peas are quite important; broad-beans are cultivated as a winter crop in the milder regions, and as a summer crop on the tablelands and mountain valleys of W. and N.W. China. Other beans, such as gram-beans, adzuki-beans, moth-beans, etc. are also much grown. Plants which give oil-bearing seeds are vary widely cultivated, such as sesame, rape, soy-beans, hemp, Perilla, etc. Fibre plants occupy a good deal of land, such as cotton, pai ma ( Abutilon avicennae ), hemp, jute, ramie, etc. Starchy root-crops are abundant, but are nol as important as in Western lands. The main root crops are taros, yams, sweet potatoes, arrow leaf ( Sagitta ria sinensis ), etc. Vegetable culture is in a high state of perfection, and no race can compare with the Chinese in the way they get succulent vegetables from small patches of land. Fruit-growing is practised wherever it pays, but through lack of scientific culture is not as succe ful as it should be. ( See under various fruit names ). King: Fanners of Forty Centuries; Meyer: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Reports; Richard: Comprehensive Geography.