Farmers of Forty Centuries; Or, Permanent Agriculture in China, Korea, and JapanKing, F. H. (Franklin Hiram)
Science
Farmers of Forty Centuries; Or, Permanent Agriculture in China, Korea, and Japan
King, F. H. (Franklin Hiram)
Agriculture -- China; Agriculture -- Japan; Agriculture -- Korea
Through the kindness of Dr. Daikuhara of the Imperial Agricultural
Experiment Station at Tokyo we are able to give the average
composition of the green leaves and young stems of five of the most
common wild species of plants cut for green manure in June. In each
1000 pounds the amount of water is 562.18 pounds; of organic matter,
382.68 pounds; of ash, 55.14 pounds; nitrogen, 4.78 pounds;
potassium, 2.407 pounds, and phosphorus, .34 pound. On the basis of
this composition and an aggregate yield of 10,185,500 tons, there
would be annually applied to the cultivated fields 3463 tons of
phosphorus and 24,516 tons of potassium derived from the genya
lands.
In addition to this the run-off from both the mountain and the genya
lands is largely used upon the rice fields, more than sixteen inches
of water being applied annually to them in some prefectures. If such
waters have the composition of river waters in North America, twelve
inches of water applied to the rice fields of the three main islands
would contribute no less than 1200 tons of phosphorus and 19,000
tons of potassium annually.
Dr. Kawaguchi, of the National Department of Agriculture and
Commerce, informed us that in 1908 Japanese farmers prepared and
applied to their fields 22,812,787 tons of compost manufactured from
the wastes of cattle, horses, swine and poultry, combined with
herbage, straw and other similar wastes and with soil, sod or mud
from ditches and canals. The amount of this compost is sufficient to
apply 1.78 tons per acre of cultivated land of the southern three
main islands.
From data obtained at the Nara Experiment Station, the composition
of compost as there prepared shows it to contain, in each 2000
pounds, 550 pounds of organic matter; 15.6 pounds of nitrogen; 8.3
pounds of potassium, and 5.24 pounds of phosphorus. On this basis
22,800,000 tons of compost will carry 59,700 tons of phosphorus and
94,600 tons of potassium. The construction of compost houses is
illustrated in Fig. 116, reproduced from a large circular sent to
farmers from the Nara Experiment Station, and an exterior of one at
the Nara Station is given in Fig. 117.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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