The Pacific commercial advertiser., 1900-12-28
THE FOOD OF CHINA
Continued from Page 1.)

of this kind in the rear, and sometimes
as many bullocks.
The only modern flour mills of China
are at Shanghai and at Wuhu, on the
Yangtse Kiang, about 240 miles north
OF here. The Shanghai mill will soon
be doing q big business. 1t has been
put up by prominent American miller,
with the finest of American improve
ments, electrical and otherwise, and it
is, l am told, as good as any mill In
Minneapolis, though not as large. 1t
has cost about 100000, is owned by Chi
nese capital, and will be fed with Chi
nese wheat. The Chinese proprietors
visited the United States, carrying two
or three bushels OF wheat along with
them to see whether our machinery
would work equally well with their
grain. The amount brought was SO
small that no test could be made, but
there Is no doubt as to the success of
the undertaking.
CHINAS BIG BREAD BASKET.
One of the big bread baskets of the
Chinese empire is the great plain which
extends north of the Yangtse There
are hundreds of miles of this region
which are covered with wheat. The
plain from north to south is as long as
from New York to Cleveland 1t is al
most as wide as from New York to
Plttsburg, and a great part of it con-
talns good wheat soil. Much of the
land is too high for irrigation, but the
soll is so rich that in ordinary seasons
IT produces good crops.
had chat the other day with Capt.
W w Rich, the foreign adviser to
Sheng, the head of the Chinese impe-
rial railways. Capt. Rich has Travelled
over most of the empire, surveying rail-
roads and reporting on mines and other
matters for Sheng. He is from Mime
aapolis. and ought to know wheat when
he sees it. Said he.
The wheat fields of the great Chi
nese plains remind me of the bonanza
farms of the Dakotas. They extend on
and on for miles There are no fences
and no barns-nothfng but wheat!
wheat wheatl Here and there is
ciump OF trees. Each OF the tree
clumps marks q Chinese village, rang
ing In size from few houses up to
hundreds. The farmers live in the viii
lagos and go out from them to their
work. The land is owned in small
patches. but to the stranger it has no
visible boundaries"
rs the country thickly populated 2"
Yes" replied Capt Rich. Much
more thickly than 1 supposed at first
was surprised at the number of peo-
pie in a village. The families are large
and you find eight or ten persons in
one house. Nearly every village be-
longs to clan or family. 1T has its
mead men, who act as their governors,
and who are well posted on all matters
connected with their localities talk
ed with many of these old men They
told me that it took all the wheat they
could raise to feed the local population
they could not give me any encourage
ment as to export. You see, I was look
ing up freight for possible railroad I
ASKED them what they did when they
rad big crop. They answered that
tney stored 1t in public granaries
against the times of famine
HOW THE CHINESE CULTIVATE,
WHEAT
During a house-boat trip up the
ahgtse valley / passed through a
wheat region, not as large -as that of
tne great plain. but big enough to
snow me something OF Chinese wheat
culture The wheat is in small patches.