The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1909-08-03
ICopyright, 1909, by Frank G. Car
~ penter.)
MUKDEN Manchuria, 1909.

peHLeT.)
MUKDEN, Manchuria, 1909.
Within two miles of this city, sur
rounded by lands as rich as the
Red River Valley, amid farming
methods as old as those Of the delta
of Egypt, a modern agricultural acad-
envy has been started by the govern
ment officials Of this backwoOds of
hundred - fifty thousand dollars
a year for its Support, and have a live
experimental farm of three hundred
acres connected with it.
This agricultural station was found
ed by Tang Shao Vi. the former Cover
nor of Mukden, Who recently went to
America to thank US for the return
of the Boxer indemnity. I understand
that a part of his mission VAS to look
up educational talent for his agricul-
tural academy, and that he will bring
a dozen or so young Americans back
with him. He has already induced
two of our we'll known agricultural ex-
perts to come here. These are Mr..
E. c.. Parker and Mr.. w. H. Tom
have, who have both been connected
with the University of Minnesota.
Both have performed good expert
mental farm work in the United
States. Prof. Parker has written sew
eral books, and has also done excel
lent work for the government at
Washington.
These young men are now on the
ground. They arrived some months
ago, and since then have been trav-
cling over Marchuria on horseback
and in carts, studying the country
and its agricultural possibilities. They
have covered a large part of southern
Manchuria and have gone through
some of the Sparsely settled northern
portions, which they tell me promise
to become one of the great bread
baskets of Asia and possibly it's meat
basket as well.
ment is one Of the most encouraging
evidences of the awakening of Asia,
and that it should be so far advanced
in Manchuria, beyond the from
tier Of China, i2 remarkable. 1t is
also to be noted mat the movement
as being backed with the American
education of Chinese brains. His ex-
cellency Tang Shao vi, who is the
prime mover and head, is a graduate
of Yale University, and M. 7. LANG,
who is the chief counsellor Of the vic
erory, and also Tang Shao Yi's as
Sistant, was educated at the same
school. The new agricultural acad-
envy has as its director Mr.. c.. S. Chan,
a young Chinese graduate of the
University of California, who speaks
English as we'll IS any reader of this
newspaper, and the text books he uses
are based upon the work of our Agri-
cultural Department in Washington.
On the Way to the Farm.
It was through the kindness of M.
Z. LANG, whom I had previously met
at the viceroy's yamen, that Direc-
tor Chan called upon me at my inn
and arranged for me to visit the farm
and school. Messrs. Parker and Tom
have went with us, and it was in two
old Russian droschkies which were
stranded here by the war that we
galloped through the wide streets OF
Mukden and out into the country.O On
our way we passed much farm pro-
duce coming into the city. There
were great loads of sorghum seed
hauled in Chinese carts by rough
ponies, and carts piled
high with bags Of soy beans. Now
and then we passed a grain shop
where millet and sorghum seed were
Set out for sale in round basket bins
the size Of a hogshead, and again went
by men and animals bringing bean
stalks and sorghum cane into the city
for fuel. AS we did SO, Prof. Parker
remarked: i
h is one of the curses Of Man.
churian farming. These people skin
the land of its natural fertilizers
Every corn stalk. every bean vine and
every weed is saved for fuel. Even
the stubble of the sorghum is pulled
h are allowed to go over the fields
after the crop is harvested. They pun
every stalk. leaving Mother Earth ma
Ned and the land as bare as your hand.
This has been done from generation