Herald and tribune. [volume] (Jonesborough, Tenn.) 1869-current, 1891-08-13
CHINESE FARMING.
How The AgricultuTist Of China
Lives and Works.

' SH'NS"s sVEoiu.o W hoNsOuN
small size. The population Of China is
so crowded that most of the land Is nee
essarily divided into small parcels, and a
farmer often has only a fraction Of an
acre on which to cultivate all his crops.
Another reason that the farms are so
small is that much Of ihe choicest ground
is given out to ancestral g%raveyards.
One of the most important elements in
Chinese religion is the worship Of ances-
tors. The geomancers, or fortune %tellers,
are consulted as to a propitious site for
the ancestral tombs, and whatever place
they select must be had regardless of cost
or sacrifice. So we frequently see whole
hillsides Of fertile land covered with
tombs.
But what the Chinese farmer lacks In
land, a III writing in the New York
Voice asserts, he makes up in preslsteni
industry. painstaking and ingenuity.
For centuries his ancestors have been
farmers, and be has been brought up
from childhood to work on the farm 1t
Is the ambition OF every Chinaman 10
have his children educated, but he can
seldom afford to send more than one son
to school to stay, so the others go of and
work on the farm. 1 have sometimes
asked the young men | have met in the
fields II they had been to school, and
the reply is. Ia substance, ooh, no.. The
old head "a very respectful term for father
can afford to send me only one hour In
the morning and one hour in the af-
ternoon. The most OF the day | must
work IN the soil"
At the time of the great blizzard In
New York March 10, 1883, | visitla the
farm village, Lok Pc, In the western
part of the Kwang Tung BROAD East)
Province. Instead Of huge snow drifts
saw beautiful green rice plants iusi
coming up. peas in blossom, mulberry
plants, bamboo groves and groves Of SUI
gar cane growing in luxuriance. The most
velvety grass lawns that have seen al
home in the spring-time freshness could
not compare in beauty with these plants
Of delicate rice plants just before trans.
planting time,
In China there are no scattered farm
houses embosomed in green. The farm
ing community live in compact little vii
lagos, and the cultivated fields belonging
TO the inhabitants are altogether outside
the village. AS | stand on a hill at die.
lance, ! count perhaps twenty or more
different villages here and there with the
farm gardens between them. The houses
ore one.story high, and usually adioin
each other in long rows on each side of
very narrow alleys. Sometimes the vii
lage presents from the outside the aspect
of a continuous wall, broken by a few
doors and windows. In every farm viii
lage there is an ancestral temple, and al.
most always a pond and a grove OF trees.
There are no fences, walls or hedges out.
side the village to divide one mans prop
erty from that Of another, but the fields
are separated by narrow footpsths raised
ten inches or more above the surface of
tie fields. These raised paths are the or.
binary roads used In passing from one
village 10 another, and they wind about
in a very zig.zag manner
Tue principle crops are rice, wheat and
sweet potatoes. Besides these, barley,
tobacco, oranges. beans, and many kinds
of vegetables and fruits are grown in con.
siderable quantities. Sugar cane, cotton
and mulberry are also cultivated. exten
sively.
The rice field must be a very wet,
muddy place. Low places that can be
easily flooded is usually selected II posi-.
Bile, Early in the spring the farmer may
be seen with his water buffalo wading
k~needeep sometimes In the mud, plow-
ing, or more correctly speaking, mixing
the mud and water. The rice Is soaked,
and then scattered thickly In this mkt.
urc. AS soon as the shoots are q few
inches high, the men and women CONF
out and take up little lunches of the
young plant, and set them out by hand,
a few inches apart, in another soft mud.
dy place, where they require no further
care.
On some low lands two crops Of rice
and one Of wheat are raised every year.
Ia many gardens the farmers manage to
grow six or eight crops of vegetables
year after year. All sorts Of substances
that can possibly be used to f~ertlllze the
soil are collected diligently. Night soil
is the principal standby, but hair from
barber's shops, exploded fire.crackers.
street sweeplngs. lime aud plaster from
old buildings, SCOT, fish and animal re.
mains, vegetable rubbish of every kind,
aud mud from the bottom of canals are
carefully gathered and sold 10 farmers.
The farmers implements and labor.
saving machines are lew and crude, and
have not changed much from those in
use centuries ago. He cultivates his fields
by means of a pillow and harrow, drawn
by the water buffalo, a small, doclle anil.
nal with no procllvities for the water so
far rs | could see. Every farmer must
have one of these animals In fact it is
often his most valuable possession, and is
treated almost as one of the family. The
broad hoe, light.axe and spade are about
the only other tools used in tilllng the
soil. The pillow is simple and light, lit
lie more than a shovel on the end OF a
bent rail, and enters the ground about
five Inches, turning q narrow furrow.
Ricp and wheat ara raanpd hv a aioLla ~.