The islander. [volume] (Friday Harbor, Wash.) 1891-1899, 1896-06-11
FARMING IN CHINA.
Lessons In Irrigation May Be Learned
From the Celestial.

Lessons In Irrigation May Be Learned
From the Celestial.
A Mongolian farmer has small field
of five or ten acres. Upon this he must
support himself, his wives and children
and put something by for rainy day.
His estate is sandy plain which slopes
from one end to the other. His first step
is to divide it into counterparts by rails
ing low walls or partitions of clay. They
are usually / y feet thick and Q feet
high. Where it is difficult to get clay
| he constructs the wall of the stones he
finds in the soil or of broken bricks and
tiles and stops up the crevices with clay
or even mud. Any form of soil except
| ing sand is used in this manner. So far
do they go that have seen them gather
ing the ooze, barred by the low tide, to
build the walls with. In each little COM
partment he builds ditch in front of
the lower wall, and at the corner OF the
compartment he lowers the wall some
what for the water to flow from one
compartment into the next adjoining
When it rains, the compartments fill,
and the entire field looks like lot OF
panes of glass the water soaks slowly
into the soil and keeps the ground moist
enough for agricultural and horticu[
tural purposes for several months.
Where the rainfall is but slight he digs
a we'll at point selected by an astrolo-
ger. This individual is bankrupt or
dissipated scholar or priest, who has
lost caste by reason of his infrmities and
makes living more or less precarious
by astrology, fortune telling. selecting
graves, finding subterranean water and
similar superstitional occupations He
bears striking resemblance to the sooth-
savers and witches of our own history.
Like them, he employs divining rod
and some arrangement In crystal which
is supposed to become cloudy when wa
ter is near. His charge for indicating
the place where we'll will be success
full varies from 10 cents to 80 cents, and
if his client secures an extra large sup
ply he demands and receives bonus OF
the same amount These cOntrivances
nine times out of ten do their business
WE'LL Some 60 to great depths. 1t was
from these deep pits that France and
ourselves first derived the idea of the ar
tesian we'll.
Water once reached, the farm labor
starts to keep Oh forever. Some one OF
the family is always at the we'll, rails
ing the precious fluid to the surface. 1t
runs by little canal to the top COM
partment and thence trickles through
the entire field. When men and women
work at it, they use large measure,
which brings up about five gallons ev-
cry time. When little children do the
labor. smaller measure, one that sell
dom exceeds gallon. is used instead.
Oxen are sometimes employed, but en-
gines, windmills and other labor saving
contrivances are never seen. The most
| patient animal in the world, the human
being, does nearly all the work. In
Tong an I once ran across queer ma
chine for sending water over the ter
races from these wells. This was large
wooden K, which was whirled around
by combination of wire and string,
something after the fashion of Chinese
top. This was kept running all day
long by being tied to the great toes of
several Chinese women, who sat upon
the grass knitting and nursing their
babies at the same time.
Chinese are large employers of stor-
age reservoirs. These are not made ao-
cording to the rules Of engineering, but
of brute necessity. They are usually
hollows which are walled up with earth
excavated from their bottom, or else
marshes or the dry beds of marshes
which are similarly enlarged and con-
fined, and in some cases small valleys
in which retaining wall has been
thrown up across its mouth. The i'm
perial law favors to the utmost the
use Of water for irrigation by the farm
or and discountenances any interference
by middlemen Or private capital. The
streams, no matter whether navigable,
the ponds and lakes are all government
property and cannot be alienated. At
the furthest, the private individual can
only lease the land beneath the water,
with the condition that the government
can at any time enter in and take pos
session of the property upon paying
him for any improvement he may have
made.