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
Much intelligence and the highest skill are exhibited by these
old-world farmers in the use of their wastes. In Fig. 113 is one of
many examples which might be cited. The man walking down the row
with his manure pails swinging from his shoulders informed us on his
return that in his household there were twenty to be fed; that from
this garden of half an acre of land he usually sold a product
bringing in $400, Mexican,--$172, gold. The crop was cucumbers in
groups of two rows thirty inches apart and twenty-four inches
between the groups. The plants were eight to ten inches apart in the
row. He had just marketed the last of a crop of greens which
occupied the space between the rows of cucumbers seen under the
strong, durable, light and very readily removable trellises. On May
28 the vines were beginning to run, so not a minute had been lost in
the change of crop. On the contrary this man had added a month to
his growing season by over-lapping his crops, and the trellises
enabled him to feed more plants of this type than there was room for
vines on the ground. With ingenuity and much labor he had made his
half acre for cucumbers equivalent to more than two. He had removed
the vines entirely from the ground; had provided a travel space two
feet wide, down which he was walking, and he had made it possible to
work about the roots of every plant for the purpose of hoeing and
feeding. Four acres of cucumbers handled by American field methods
would not yield more than this man's one, and he grows besides two
other crops the same season.
The difference is not so much in activity of muscle as it is in
alertness and efficiency of the grey matter of the brain. He sees
and treats each plant individually, he loosens the ground so that
his liquid manure drops immediately beneath the surface within reach
of the active roots. If the rainfall has been scanty and the soil is
dry he may use ten of water to two of night soil, not to supply
water but to make certain sufficiently deep penetration. If the
weather is rainy and the soil over wet, the food is applied more
concentrated, not to lighten the burden but to avoid waste by
leaching and over saturation. While ever crowding growth he never
overfeeds. Forethought, after-thought and the mind focused on the
work in hand are characteristic of these people. We do not recall to
have seen a man smoking while at work. They enjoy smoking, but
prefer to do this also with the attention undivided and thus get
more for their money.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account