The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1909-05-04

range is not LOFTY. There are but few
peaks q mile above the sea, and the
highest Of them all is only 5000 feet.
his Is Mount Paik-To-San, an extinct
~Olcano whose crater is filled with
water, forming a beautiful lake of un-
noWn depth. The average hills are
below the altitude of the Blue Ridge
IN Virginia, and some slope off into
plains.
All Of these mountains were at one
time Well wooded There were forests
from one end of the peninsula to the
other, and the farms ran UP the sides
OF the hills. Today in the central and
lower parts of Korea the tops of the
ridges are as bare as the desert OF
Sahara, and there is only a thin
growth Of pines on the sides. This is
so all the way from Fusan to Seoul.
Right here at the capital, which lies
in a basin surrounded by mountains,
the most of the hills are as bare as the
Rockies, and the clay has been washed
down into the valleys. Trees will
grow easily. but the people skin the
mountains year after year of every bit
OF vegetation in order that it may be
used for fuel. First they cut down
the trees. Later they chop away the
sprouts and young growth and finally
pull up the grass until the country
looks as though it had been plowed
over.
IIoN IAcICtt fAccIS VdII1.
AT this writing the streets of Seoul
are filled With bullocks, ponies and
men loaded with fuel which they have
brought into the city for sale. Porters
go along with carloads of evergreen
branches fastened to the jiggy, a sort
of framework which they wear upon
their backs. Bullocks by scores are
entirely covered with bundle of SINH
lar fuel. y single animal will carry
almost one thousand pounds, or as
much as one horse could hau in a
cart in our country. Indeed, the load
is so large that you could not put it
into an American cart. 1t rises six
or eight feet above the back of the
bullock, and hangs down on the sides
almost to his feet. SO that one sees
little more than his head. tail and
hoOfs as he goes along the road.
There are ponies carrying wood, chop
ped into stove lengths and tied up IN
bundles. and men alden with charcoal
which has been made in the hills.
The chief form of heating here is
by f1ues which run under the aoor. and
straw, tWigs and pine are eN-
cellent for. this A bunch is
put in at the entrance of the tlues and
lighted, and its flames spread out,
making the floors hot almost to roast
ing.
One of the first works of the Japan
csc Will be to stop this skinning Of the
mountains. They will plant trees as
fast as possible upon the available
hills, thus conserving the rainfall and
greatly increasing the land susceptible
TO cultivation. They have already
planted model forests in the vicinity
of Seoul. P.-enggyang and Taiku, and
as soon as the nurseries are in good
shape will extend the program to other
parts of the country.
The Farms Of Korea.
Today most Of the farms of Korea
are confined to the valleys. The
area being cultivated is just about half
thai which is titled in Japan, and if it
were as intensively farned it would be
feeding J.G0O. 600 people instead of
less than fifteen million, as now. I
am told that the soil here is naturally
much better than that of Japan, but
[ doubt if the product is o~ne-fourth as
large. The farmers fertilize but little
and they know nothing Of artificial
manures. During q recent trip over
the country l saw men carrying man
ure from the villages to the fields on
their backs, and farther on bullocks
were used for the purpose, the stuff
being loaded into baskets Of straw
rope which hung down on each side
Of the animal.
Everywhere the methods OF cult
walton were crude. The ploWs We're
little more than forked sticks shod
with iron. hey are on~e-handled af-
fairs, drawn by bullocks, reminding
one of the plows of the Scriptures.
Much Of the country is hoed over by
men and Women The clods are
broken up with mallets, which the
people swing back and forth as they
walk through the burrows. There Is
no machinery of any kind. The grain
is all sowed by hand. It is thrashed
with fails and W-innowed in the wind,
the grain and chaff being thrown high
into the air.
The contrast between the country
scenes Of japan and Korea is strik-
ing. Everything in the former coun-
try shines with thrift. There is not a
weed in the fields. the houses are neat