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
Six hundred and forty cakes was the average daily output of this
family of eight men and two boys, with their six water buffalo. The
cotton seed cakes were being sold as feed, and a near-by Chinese
dairyman was using them for his herd of forty water buffalo, seen in
Fig. 78, producing milk for the foreign trade in Shanghai. This herd
of forty cows one of which was an albino, was giving an average of
but 200 catty of milk per day, or at the rate of six and two-thirds
pounds per head! The cows have extremely small udders but the milk
is very rich, as indicated by an analysis made in the office of the
Shanghai Board of Health and obtained through the kindness of Dr.
Arthur Stanley. The milk showed a specific gravity of 1.028 and
contained 20.1 per cent total solids; 7.5 per cent fat; 4.2 per cent
milk sugar and .8 per cent ash. In the family of Rev. W. H. Hudson,
of the Southern Presbyterian Mission, Kashing, whose very gracious
hospitality we enjoyed on two different occasions, the butter made
from the milk of two of these cows, one of which, with her calf, is
seen in Fig. 79, was used on the family table. It was as white as
lard or cottolene but the texture and flavor were normal and far
better than the Danish and New Zealand products served at the
hotels.
The milk produced at the Chinese dairy in Shanghai was being sold in
bottles holding two pounds, at the rate of one dollar a bottle, or
43 cents, gold. This seems high and there may have been
misunderstanding on the part of my interpreter but his answer to my
question was that the milk was being sold at one Shanghai dollar per
bottle holding one and a half catty, which, interpreted, is the
value given above.
But fuel from the stems of cultivated plants which are in part
otherwise useful, is not sufficient to meet the needs of country and
village, notwithstanding the intense economies practiced. Large
areas of hill and mountain land are made to contribute their share,
as we have seen in the south of China, where pine boughs were being
used for firing the lime and cement kilns. At Tsingtao we saw the
pine bough fuel on the backs of mules, Fig. 80, coming from the
hills in Shantung province. Similar fuels were being used in Korea
and we have photographs of large pine bough fuel stacks, taken in
Japan at Funabashi, east from Tokyo.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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