The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1885-07-22
FARMING ABROAD.
ITEMS CLEANED FROM THE consul
LAR REPORTS ON AGRICULTURE.
The Mexican Farmer-In Brazil-A Plow
for India-LabOr in Japan-Methods
Pursued In China-Dutch-
men in Africa.
Washington Cor. Chicago News.i

Washington Cor Chicago News.I
In a small room on the third floor OF
the state department building three men
are continually engaged in arranging the
monthly reports of the United States con-
suls located in various parts Of the world
A number of reports on agriculture ana
the best methods of introducing agricul-
tural machinery of American make III
foreign lands have recently been printed.
Invariably the consuls say the best
method of introducing such articles IS
through agents acquainted with land ana
people, by advertising, and distributing
price currents and catalogues among estate
owners and large agriculturists, and by
intelligent travelling agents, VINO should
study the requirements and tastes OF eacn
district The English are considered the
American rivals in this branch of bust
ness throughout Europe. English manu-
facturers have established permanent eX-
hibitions of their agricultural machines,
and have introduced the system of renting
them for the season in order to make
them known.
In northern Mexico all implements are
reported to be OF the most primitive de
scription. A crooked stick, drawn by
oxen or a mule scratches the ground
little as preparatory move before plant
ing or sowing Hoes are heavy, awk
ward tools. Reaping is done with sickles,
and thrashing by treading out The cul
tivation of the soil in ManZanillo is sim
liar. Not a single farmer manures his
fields With simple iron pointed stick
they bore the holes in the ground, AND
the seed corn is cast in. In a few days
the young seed shoots up and with it in
Vulnerable weeds, which are removed by
hand Farmers com Lain that American
plows are too heavy to lift. They prefer
oxen, because horses make them walk too
fast.
The most of the cultivation on farms in
Brazil, and especially where there is slave
labor, is with the hoe, an implement a
third larger and much heavier than the
common American field hoe These weigh
from two to five pounds each, and are
mostly imported from England, in barrels,
ten dozen to barrel One firm in Rio de
JaneirO imports 800 barrels year from
England. and the same L rm estimate that
600, 900 hoes are imported and disposed of
annually in Brazil. The upper half of
the hoe is generally painted in green or
some other fancy color. Sometimes they
are gilded. Great Britain, Germany and
France have an immense advantage over
the United States in exporting their manu-
features to Brazil through their numerous
and regular steamship lines.
Consul General Mattson, at Calcutta,
says: The small, American garden ploW
which turns a furrow of eight or nine
inches and is so light that 10-year-old
boy can carry it on his shoulder and
good sized pony can work it in the field,
is, in my judgment, the very pillow to in
troduce into India, where an immense
market awaits the successful manufac
turer.
The almost exclusive use of hand labor
in farming operations in Japan and the
comparatively nominal cost of the rude
native implements that fully meet the
farmers requirements, seem to preclude
the introduction of American machinery.
The latter is used only on the government
experiment farms An American mer-
chant in Japan says he has tried to sell
nearly every description of American i'm
plements, but without success. Now he
has a stock in his warehouse which has
been on hand for fifteen years. Farm
labor is so cheap that it is practically i'm
possible to underbid it with laborSaving
machinery.
The methods of agriculture pursued in
China and the tools used are of the most
primitive form. Even an apology for a
shovel is seldom to be met with, while the
hoe is long, narrow, and heavy blade
used for almost all purposes. The plow
is rough and clumsy affair, with only
one "stilt" and only the point shod with
iron. The harrow resembles that used in
this countrY, and the rake, when used at
all, is formed of curved and split bamboo,
but is frail and of little value. Farm
carts or wagons are infrequent, very
clumsy, of solid wooden wheels, and
rudely fashioned. Threshing is performed
as in the time of Moses, by spreading
the sheaves on an earthen threshing
floor and driving unmuZZled cattle over
the grain to tread it out WinnoWing is
done on the same floor by pouring the
grain from uplifted baskets for the wind
to drive away the chaff, with sometimes
huge fan welded by an assistant coolie
Sometimes the grain is ground between
mill-stones-the under one stationary and
the upper turned by bullock that travels
in a circle Sometimes two women grind
at a mill, as in the time of Herod of
Galilee. Nearly all burdens in China are
borne on mems shoulders. and thus crops
are transported. Labor is so cheap and
cultivation so subdivided that often every
plant has a special culture, and daily irri-
CATION with liquid manure is applied
especially with all food vegetables
The African farmers are Dutchmen or
descendants of Dutchmen. They are con-
sentative in all their views, and, as a rule.
are prejudiced against too many innova.
tions on old-established customs They
do not keep pace with the latest inven-
tons They still adhere to the
old-style farm wagon of twenty-five years
nished by teams of fourteen oxen or of
ten mules. These vehicles are capable of
carrying dead weight of not less than
eight tons. Efforts have been continually
made for the past quarter of a century to
introduce improved agricultural nipple
ments and machinery. but the taste of the
tribes for war is stronger than their love
for bucolic pursuits
Throughout nearly all of Europe the
consuls say, modern machines are being
used.