The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1889-09-27
Farm Life IN China.

land appears to have been practically
determined by the Chinese, says d
writer in Popular Science Monthly.
On ground that has been titled for
thousands of years they, by a skillful
use of fertilizers and by attention to
the welfare Of each plant, raise crops
that would honor virgin soil.
In this Swallow region probably nine
tenths Of the men are engaged in agri-
culture. The farmers live in villages,
i.olated dwellings being uncommon.
The villages are walled, contain no
wasted space, and are densely pcoplcd.
The wide.spreading, flat fields, lying
along the river banks at the foot of the
hills, may be made to yield here on the
Tropic Of Cancer constant series Ct
crops without interval on sccount of
winter. Their chief productions are
rice, sugar.cane, sweet potatoes, pulse,
garden vegetables, peanuts, indigo, ses-
amum, ginger, the grass cloth plant,
tobacco and wheat. Rice is the staple
food OF the people, and in the best
years the local product just supplies
the local demand. Sugar is the prin-
ciple export. The cane requires less
labor than any other crop, and will
grow upon unwstered land, which is
unsuitable for rice culture. One crop
of cane or two crops OF other produce
may be grown in the same year upon
unwatered land. On the b,st rice fields
three crops are sometimes raised. The
early rice is sowod in April and har-
vested in July; the late rice is sowed in
August and harvested in November,
and the field is sometimes planted with
garden vegetables, which are pulled in
March. The expense Of fertilizing the
third crop is SO nearly equal to its val
ue that it is never reckoned as a source
of profit to the culhva:or.
The whole country belongs theorct-
ically to its sovereign, and upon all
land that Can be tilIod with profit tax
is paid into the imperial treasury. The
sum due annually to the government
for the use Of land is fxod for each
field, amounting to from sixty cents to
two dollars, and averages dollar and .
half upon each English acre.
When a father dies his land is DE-
vided equally among his sons, the
eldest receiving an additional tenth on
account of the extra expense to which
he is put in worshiping the names o:
the ancestor. The land is distributed
very generally, though nnequally,
among the people, and is usually titled
by its peasant proprietor. Few own as
much as two hundred acres; one who
owns ten acres is reckoned wealthy,
and he who owns one acre possesses
competence. Those who own from
one-tenth to onc-half an acre are most
numerous, and therefore there are
many who till land for share of the
produce.
Land that is too sterile for profitable
cultivation or for taxation sells for FRI NJ
six to sixty dollars an acre, while good
farm land is valued at from three hun
dred to eight hundred dollars an acre
Rice fields not in the vicinage of city
sell readily for six hundred dollars an
acre, and are not always to be bought
at that price, because those who own
land find it the safest Investment, aud
part with it only under the stress Of
debt. The bursting of dikes. drouth
and bad habits are the chief causes of
the transfer of land, and the sale of a
child often Precedes that Of the rice
field. Interest on money lent is from
twelve to twenty per cent, according to
agreement between lender and borrower.
The chief expense oftillage is in fer
tilizers, beans and sesamum seeds from
which the oil has been expressed being
commonly used, at an outlay of from
six to forty and an average Of twenty
four dollars upon every acre of land.
Besides this, potato peclings, hair from
shaven heads and all other vegetable
and animal refuse is carefully husband
ed and methodically applied to the soil.
The clods of the field are laid up into
little ovens to retain and be enriched
by the smoke OF the stubblo burned
underneath them. Adobe houses,
whose walls have for many years alb
sorbed the fumes of kitchen and the
exhalations of human inmates are pull
verified and added to the every hungry
earth. Each growing plant separately
receives distinguished consideration, q
scrap Of tobacco stalk being sometimes