Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1885-09-09

! And it is wrong to base our love
| On wealth and name and station,
For he who will may rise above
His daily occupation.
! We should not look with eyes of scorn
| And find in him no beauty
Who stands and guards our fields of corn,
| And does the whole world duty,
But honor him for native worth,
For rustic independence,
And send hearty greeting forth
For him and his descendants.
-Marfha Caverno Cook in Hd,per's Young
Folks.
Methods of Agriculture in the East.
The methods of agriculture pursued
in China and the tools used are of the
rudest and most primitive form. Even
an apology for a shovel is seldom to be
met with, while the hoe is of a long,
narrow, heavy blade, and is used for
almost all purposes. 1t takes the place
of shovel when soil is to be moved, as
it is carried in shallow baskets depend
ing from yoke on the cooly's shout
| ders, and the hoe is used to scrape the
earth into the baskets. After plough
ing, and often without it, the earth is
dug up and prepared for the seed by
the hoe, and the growing plants are
cultivated by it's aid. The plough is a
rough and clumsy affair, with only one
'stilt,'' and only the point shod with
iron. 1t loosens the soil, but turns a
very slight furrow, from its narrowness.
The harrow is more like the well-known
form at home, 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, solid wooden wheels, and
rudely fashioned. Thrashing is per-
formed as in the time of Moses, by
spreading the sheaves on an earthen
thrashing-foor and driving unmuzzled
cattle over the grain to tread it out.
by pouring the grain from uplifted has,
kets for the wind to drive away the
chaff, with sometimes a huge fan
welded by an assistant cody. Some
times the grain is ground between mill
stones, the under one stationary and
the upper turned by bullock that
travels in \ circle. Sometimes two
women grind at mill as in the time of
Herod Of Galilee. Quite often a still
ruder process is observed. "A stone
coping is firmly set in a continuous
circle about a space of ground Is or 20
feet in diameter. The coping has an
unbroken groove cut in its upper sur
face V-shaped, and circular stone, 3
feet in diameter, has it's periphery hewn
to fit it in the groove, which is five
inches or more in depth. Into this
groove the grain is placed and the
stone wheel revolves over it, it's centre
fixed to pivot on the outer extremity
of beam, whose inner end is attached
to pivot in the centre of an inclosed
space. A bullock hitched to beam
revolves the grinding stone, and in
time the grain is crushed to powder.
Nearly all burdens are borne on mems
shoulders, and thus crops are gathered
and transferred. Labor is so cheap
and cultivation 50 subdivided that often
every plant has a special culture, and
daily irrigation with liquid manure is
applied, especially with all food vege-
tables.
The soil of the Island of Java is pro-
ductive to degree, the crudest imple-
ment serving the native. The plough
is crooked or bent stick, drawn by
buffaloes, and merely scratches the top
of the earth; the spade is never used,
unless here and there on an estate I'M
der European management, and the
hoe, an instrument in universal use,
is great, qnwieldy, heavy, and elm
possible thing, at least twice the
weight of our own. The primitiveness
in implements for use in cultivating
land, and tools usually employed by
husbandmen. is UNIVERSAL simple
Ratchet, for instance, is rarely seen in
the hands of native; an ak is also a
rara avis, though both these tools are
procurable. It will be understood, of
course, that the mode of cultivation
amongst the natives is as simple as
their implements; the soil is so rich
and nature so bountiful in this favored
island that it takes but little labor to
produce good result, given that in
sects, disease, want of or too much rain
does not interfere.
Owing to the paucity ofpopulation of
Asia Minor, when compared with the
extent of arabic territory, and to the
fact that except for gardens, cotton and
tobacco fields, fertilizing substances
are not used, the land is allowed to re-
main fallow every third year. Thus a
field which is sown with a summer crop,
such as Indian corn, millet, sesame,
beans, vetch, etc., is sown again the
following autumn with wheat, barley,
or horse beans, ETC., these being the win
ter crops; the third year it is not plant
ed.
The agricultural implements in gen.
eral use are of the most primitive style
and make. Oxen are used for plough
ing and threshing purposes. The yoke
is long straight stick, usually fastened
to the horns. The plough is simply a
triangular block of hard wood, with an
iron cap on the point, one pole in front,
to which the oxen are fastened, and one
behind to guide it. The other imple-
ments are the harrow, rake, sickle,
spade, pickaxe, shovel, pitchfork, sieve
winnow, and clumsy low-wheeled bull
lock cart, all of which the least pro-
gressive of our American farmers
would scorn to use. The ploughing is
about four inches deep. with a space
between each furrow of twelve inches
or more. Irrigation is confined to