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
From the analyses of mixed human excreta made by Wolff in Europe and
by Kellner in Japan it appears that, as an average, these carry in
every 2000 pounds 12.7 pounds of nitrogen, 4 pounds of potassium and
1.7 pounds of phosphorus. On this basis and that of Carpenter, who
estimates the average amount of excreta per day for the adult at 40
ounces, the average annual production per million of adult
population is 5,794,300 pounds of nitrogen; 1,825,000 pounds of
potassium, and 775,600 pounds of phosphorus carried in 456,250 tons
of excreta. The figures which Hall cites in Fertilizers and Manures,
would make these amounts 7,940,000 pounds of nitrogen; 3,070,500
pounds of potassium, and 1,965,600 pounds of phosphorus, but the
figures he takes and calls high averages give 12,000,000 of
nitrogen; 4,151,000 pounds of potassium, and 3,057,600 pounds of
phosphorus.
In 1908 the International Concessions of the city of Shanghai sold
to one Chinese contractor for $31,000, gold, the privilege of
collecting 78,000 tons of human waste, under stipulated regulations,
and of removing it to the country for sale to farmers. The flotilla
of boats seen in Fig. 106 is one of several engaged daily in
Shanghai throughout the year in this service.
Dr. Kawaguchi, of the National Department of Agriculture and
Commerce, taking his data from their records, informed us that the
human manure saved and applied to the fields of Japan in 1908
amounted to 23,850,295 tons, which is an average of 1.75 tons per
acre of their 21,321 square miles of cultivated land in their four
main islands.
On the basis of the data of Wolff, Kellner and Carpenter, or of
Hall, the people of the United States and of Europe are pouring into
the sea, lakes or rivers and into the underground waters from
5,794,300 to 12,000,000 pounds of nitrogen; 1,881,900 to 4,151,000
pounds of potassium, and 777,200 to 3,057,600 pounds of phosphorus
per million of adult population annually, and this waste we esteem
one of the great achievements of our civilization. In the Far East,
for more than thirty centuries, these enormous wastes have been
religiously saved and today the four hundred million of adult
population send back to their fields annually 150,000 tons of
phosphorus; 376,000 tons of potassium, and 1,158,000 tons of
nitrogen comprised in a gross weight exceeding 182 million tons,
gathered from every home, from the country villages and from the
great cities like Hankow-Wuchang-Hanyang with its 1,770,000 people
swarming on a land area delimited by a radius of four miles.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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