The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1878-03-20
SEVENTY MILLIONS STARVING.
The Famine In Northern China and Its Cause
Chinese Agriculture and Food-Chinn
and Other Nations.

The Famine In Northern Chlna ana ltS Caus
Chinese Agriculture and Food-Chin
md Other Nations.
The northern provinces of China hav
undergone during the past two years
climatic change which is almost withou
parallel among the settled and civilized
. portions of the globe. The remains o
Immense bridges over wasted waite
courses, and the signs of an ancien
population much greater than the pre-
sent, attests that its capacity for sustain
ing life has undergone an e1traordinar.
diminution. Even the population o
Pekin is accounted to be much less thai
formerly. Famine, 80 far from being al
uncommon incident in these provinces
is of very frequent occurrence. At tn
present time there are said to be in thes'
extensive and almost unknown region
7O,OO0,OO0 of human beings-nearl,
double the entire population of th'
United States-in state of starvation
Ever since 1851, before which periot
knowledge of these populous and mys
terious lands was even less than it il
now, famine has been among them
frequent and familiar visitor, though
there is no record of one 90 widespread
and terrible as the present.
Drought, inundation and insurrectior
may be set down as the main causes O.
famine in China, to which the ravages
of locusts, which sometimes devastatt
extensive regions in the north, may be
added. Although the aluvial districts
of the country are reticulated by net
work of canals, which bound every field
and intersect every village, the hill ano
mountain regions are without any except
the rudest means of communication.
There are. in fact. few roads in the en-
pire worthy to be mentioned, and these
which survive as the memorials of pre-
yious and more enterprising dynasties,
are in melancholy condition of decay
and ruin. Even the immense stone
causeway leading from the capital to the
burial-place of the Ming dynasty, built
of solid blocks of granite, and towering
forty feet above the plain which it spans,
is impossible for vehicles, and affords
but a rough and insecure footway for
trains of donkeys and the bearers of
palanquins and chairs. In the noun
famous districts of the south no vehicles
drawn by animals are ever used, their
products finding their way to the mar:
kets and their supplies to their villages
on the backs OF human carriers. TRAY
elers in these provinces not infrequently
meet long professions OF peasants, some
bearing chests OF ten upon the ends of a
bamboo pole slung across their shoul-
ders, some bundles of fagots for fire.
wood, and others a miscellaneous bur-
den of the rude products of their fields
and workshops. In the provinces of
Chihil, Shautung, Shansi and Shensi
clumsy two-wheeled carts drawn by
bullocks are employed to some extent,
though they afford no adequate means
of conveying food to communities whose
local crops have failed.
The most trustworthy authorities esti-
mate the population of China proper at
42O, 900, 900, and of it's dependencies
at about 26,OOO,OOO, constituting to-
gether fully one-third of the human
race. The support of this stupendous
mass of human beings taxes even the
immense and unfailing fertility of the
land to the utmost. Nowhere IN the
world is agriculture pursued with more
refined skill and economy, and nowhere
in the world is individual industry and
frugality carried to greater length. In
all foreign countries where the Chinese
have gone, their thrift and diligence
have far exceeded any with which they
we're brought into competition, and they
have never failed to e1tort prosperity
from even the most unpromising sur
roundings and conditions. Their perse-
verance is proof against all forms of dis
couragement, and their fortitude su-
perior to the extremity of oppression.
They gain and save where another race
less skilled and diligent would starve,
and the virtues which they exhibit
abroad they practice with equal steadi-
ness at home. Every handbreadth of
soil is utilized to it's utmost limit: bills
are terraced to their SUBMITS; on waste
spaces thin coating of earth is spread,
and made to bear its slight burden OF
harvest; every particle of fertilizing
material is saved with miserly care. So
important is perfect agriculture deemed
in the economy of the nation, that one
of the most august deities in the comph-
Gated system of Chinese mythology is
supposed to watch over it with peculiar
and exclusive attention, The temple
dedicated to it in Pekin is only second in
extent and splendor to that OF heaven
and earth, and on certain day In the
year, which is observed all over the en-
pire with appropriate ceremonies, the
emperor comes forth in state from his
austere and mysterious seclusion, and
with his own hands guides the plow
across the sacred field adjacent to the
shrine. Rice is grown to some extent
in all parts Of the empire, though It's
chief production is in the nine southern
provinces. The northern plains produce
millet, and in the northwest wheat, rye,
oats, barley and maize constitute the
bulk of the food supply. Manchooria
produces in sufficient abundance black
pulse, which, with scanty crops OF the
coarser varieties of grain, and the pro-
duce of their focks and herds, make up
the greater part of their subsistence.
The province of Szchneu, lying near the
head waters of the Yang tse Kiang,
above the port of Hang, the last opened
to commerce, and at the head of the
navigation of the river, is of great fertl-
ity and its products of the widest variety.
The mountainous region Of the Shensi,
bounded on the west and south by the
upper waters of the Yellow river, is said,
by Baron Richtofer and Professor Dana,
to be one of the richest coal regions in
the world, but it is as yet almost totally
unworked and the inhabitants upon its
borders gather the reeds of the rivers
for fuel, as they have done for: thousands
of years. Tobacco grows abundantly all
over the empire, and sugar-canc is sue
cessfully cultivated along the alluvlum
of it's principal rivers. .
Everything which it is possible to use
rs food is eagerly utilized by the Chinese.
The fields and the waters, and the will
derness are ransacked for their various
spoil with deligence aud thoroughness
which is, perhaps, unknown elsewhere
in the world. The field rat and the bur.
rowing mole, elsewhere the terror of
agriculturists, are to the Chinaman the
good gifts of God. Certain favorite var1e-
ties of dog are fattened for the market
and esteemed o great delicacy Snalls,
water nevis, lizards, and even snakes,
are not disdained as food. Mr.. Win
grove Cooke narrates that one OF his
guides, slim, meditative youth, who
seemed during the greater part OF the