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.
On another date earlier in May we were walking in the fields without
an interpreter. For half an hour we stood watching an old gardener
fitting the soil with his spading hoe in the manner seen in Fig. 26,
where the graves of his ancestors occupy a part of the land.
Angleworms were extremely numerous, as large around as an ordinary
lead pencil and, when not extended, two-thirds as long, decidedly
greenish in color. Nearly every stroke of the spade exposed two to
five of these worms but so far as we observed, and we watched the
man closely, pulverizing the soil, he neither injured nor left
uncovered a single worm. While he seemed to make no effort to avoid
injuring them or to cover them with earth, and while we could not
talk with him, we are convinced that his action was continually
guarded against injuring the worms.
They certainly were subsoiling his garden deeply and making possible
a freer circulation of air far below the surface. Their great
abundance proved a high content of organic matter present in the
soil and, as the worms ate their way through it, passing the soil
through their bodies, the yearly volume of work done by them was
very great. In the fields flooded preparatory to fitting them for
rice these worms are forced to the surface in enormous numbers and
large flocks of ducks are taken to such fields to feed upon them.
In another field a crop of barley was nearing maturity. An adjacent
strip of land was to be fitted and planted. The leaning barley heads
were in the way. Not one must be lost and every inch of ground must
be put to use. The grain along the margin, for a breadth of sixteen
inches, had been gathered into handfuls and skillfully tied, each
with an unpulled barley stem, without breaking the straw, thus
permitting even the grains in that head to fill and be gathered with
the rest, while the tying set all straws well aslant, out of the
way, and permitted the last inch of naked ground to be fitted
without injuring the grain.
In still another instance a man was growing Irish potatoes to market
when yet small. He had enriched his soil; he would apply water if
the rains were not timely and sufficient, and had fed the plants. He
had planted in rows only twelve to fourteen inches apart with a hill
every eight inches in the row. The vines stood strong, straight,
fourteen inches high and as even as a trimmed hedge. The leaves and
stems were turgid, the deepest green and as prime and glossy as a
prize steer. So close were the plants that there was leaf surface to
intercept the sunshine falling on every square inch of the patch.
There were no potato beetles and we saw no signs of injury but the
gardener was scanning the patch with the eye of a robin. He spied
the slightest first drooping of leaves in a stem; went after the
difficulty and brought and placed in our hand a cutworm, a young
tuber the size of a marble and a stem cut half off, which he was
willing to sacrifice because of our evident interest. But the two
friends who had met were held apart by the babel of tongues.
Nothing is costing the world more; has made so many enemies, and has
so much hindered the forming of friendships as the inability to
fully understand; hence the dove that brings world peace must fly on
the wings of a common language, and the bright star in the east is
world commerce, rising on rapidly developing railway and steamship
lines, heralded and directed by electric communication. With world
commerce must come mutual confidence and friendship requiring a full
understanding and therefore a common tongue. Then world peace will
be permanently assured. It is coming inevitably and faster than we
think. Once this desired end is seriously sought, the carrying of
three generations of children through the public schools where the
world language is taught together with the mother tongue, and the
passing of the parents and grandparents, would effect the change.
The important point regarding these Far East people, to which
attention should be directed, is that effective thinking, clear and
strong, prevails among the farmers who have fed and are still
feeding the dense populations from the products of their limited
areas. This is further indicated in the universal and extensive use
of plant ashes derived from fuel grown upon cultivated fields and
upon the adjacent hill and mountain lands.
We were unable to secure exact data regarding the amount of fuel
burned annually in these countries, and of ashes used as fertilizer,
but a cord of dry oak wood weighs about 3500 pounds, and the weight
of fuel used in the home and in manufactures must exceed that of two
cords per household. Japan has an average of 5.563 people per
family. If we allow but 1300 pounds of fuel per capita, Japan's
consumption would be 31,200,000 tons. In view of the fact that a
very large share of the fuel used in these countries is either
agricultural plant stems, with an average ash content of 5 per cent,
or the twigs and even leaves of trees, as in the case of pine bough
fuel, 4.5 per cent of ash may be taken as a fair estimate. On this
basis, and with a content of phosphorus equal to .5 per cent, and of
potassium equal to 5 per cent, the fuel ash for Japan would amount
to 1,404,000 tons annually, carrying 7020 tons of phosphorus and
70,200 tons of potassium, together with more than 400,000 tons of
limestone, which is returned annually to less than 21,321 square
miles of cultivated land.
In China, with her more than four hundred millions of people, a
similar rate of fuel consumption would make the phosphorus and
potassium returned to her fields more than eight times the amounts
computed for Japan. On the basis of these statements Japan's annual
saving of phosphorus from the waste of her fuel would be equivalent
to more than 46,800 tons of rock phosphate having a purity of 75 per
cent, or in the neighborhood of seven pounds per acre. If this
amount, even with the potash and limestone added, appears like a
trifling addition of fertility it is important for Americans to
remember that even if this is so, these people have felt compelled
to make the saving.
In the matter of returning soluble potassium to the cultivated
fields Japan would be applying with her ashes the equivalent of no
less than 156,600 tons of pure potassium sulphate, equal to 23
pounds per acre; while the lime carbonate so applied annually would
be some 62 pounds per acre.
In addition to the forest lands, which have long been made to
contribute plant food to the cultivated fields through fuel ashes,
there are large areas which contribute green manure and compost
material. These are chiefly hill lands, aggregating some twenty per
cent of the cultivated fields, which bear mostly herbaceous growth.
Some 2,552,741 acres of these lands may be cut over three times each
season, yielding, in 1903, an average of 7980 pounds per acre. The
first cutting of this hill herbage is mainly used on the rice fields
as green manure, it being tramped into the mud between the rows
after the manner seen in Fig. 114.
This man had been with basket and sickle to gather green herbage
wherever he could and had brought it to his rice paddy. The day in
July was extremely sultry. We came upon him wading in the water half
way to his knees, carefully laying the herbage he had gathered
between alternate rows of his rice, one handful in a place, with
tips overlapping. This done he took the attitude seen in the
illustration and, gathering the materials into a compact bunch,
pressed it beneath the surface with his foot. The two hands smoothed
the soft mud over the grass and righted the disturbed spears of rice
in the two adjacent hills. Thus, foot following foot, one bare
length ahead, the succeeding bunches of herbage were submerged until
the last had been reached, following between alternate rows only a
foot apart, there being a hill every nine to ten inches in the row
and the hands grasping and being drawn over every one in the paddy.
He was renting the land, paying therefor forty kan of rice per tan,
and his usual yield was eighty kan. This is forty-four bushels of
sixty pounds per acre. In unfavorable seasons his yield might be
less but still his rent would be forty kan per tan unless it was
clear that he had done all that could reasonably be expected of him
in securing the crop. It is difficult for Americans to understand
how it is possible for the will of man, even when spurred by the
love of home and family, to hold flesh to tasks like these.
The second and third cuttings of herbage from the genya lands in
Japan are used for the preparation of compost applied on the
dry-land fields in the fall or in the spring of the following
season. Some of these lands are pastured, but approximately
10,185,500 tons of green herbage grown and gathered from the hills
contributes much of its organic matter and all of its ash to enrich
the cultivated fields. Such wild growth areas in Japan are the
commons of the near by villages, to which the people are freely
admitted for the purpose of cutting the herbage. A fixed time may be
set for cutting and a limit placed upon the amount which may be
carried away, which is done in the manner seen in Fig. 115. It is
well recognized by the people that this constant cutting and removal
of growth from the hill lands, with no return, depletes the soils
and reduces the amount of green herbage they are able to secure.
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.
This compost house is designed to serve two and a half acres. Its
floor is twelve by eighteen feet, rendered watertight by a mixture
of clay, lime and sand. The walls are of earth, one foot thick, and
the roof is thatched with straw. Its capacity is sixteen to twenty
tons, having a cash value of 60 yen, or $30. In preparing the stack,
materials are brought daily and, spread over one side of the compost
floor until the pile has attained a height of five feet. After one
foot in depth has been laid and firmed, 1.2 inches of soil or mud is
spread over the surface and the process repeated until full height
has been attained. Water is added sufficient to keep the whole
saturated and to maintain the temperature below that of the body.
After the compost stacks have been completed they are permitted to
stand five weeks in summer, seven weeks in winter, when they are
forked over and transferred to the opposite side of the house.
If we state in round numbers the total nitrogen, phosphorus and
potassium thus far enumerated which Japanese farmers apply or return
annually to their twenty or twenty-one thousand square miles of
cultivated fields, the case stands 385,214 tons of nitrogen, 91,656
tons of phosphorus and 255,778 tons of potassium. These values are
only approximations and do not include the large volume and variety
of fertilizers prepared from fish, which have long been used.
Neither do they include the very large amount of nitrogen derived
directly from the atmosphere through their long, extensive and
persistent cultivation of soy beans and other legumes. Indeed, from
1903 to 1906 the average area of paddy field upon which was grown a
second crop of green manure in the form of some legume was 6.8 per
cent of the total area of such fields aggregating 11,000 square
miles. In 1906 over 18 per cent of the upland fields also produced
some leguminous crop, these fields aggregating between 9,000 and
10,000 square miles.
While the values which have been given above, expressing the sum
total of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium applied annually to the
cultivated fields of Japan may be somewhat too high for some of the
sources named, there is little doubt that Japanese farmers apply to
their fields more of these three plant food elements annually than
has been computed. The amounts which have been given are sufficient
to provide annually, for each acre of the 21,321 square miles of
cultivated land, an application of not less than 56 pounds of
nitrogen, 13 pounds of phosphorus and 37 pounds of potassium. Or, if
we omit the large northern island of Hokkaido, still new in its
agriculture and lacking the intensive practices of the older farm
land, the quantities are sufficient for a mean application of 60, 14
and 40 pounds respectively of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium per
acre, and yet the maturing of 1000 pounds of wheat crop, covering
grain and straw as water-free substance, removes from the soil but
13.9 pounds of nitrogen, 2.3 pounds of phosphorus and 8.4 pounds of
potassium, from which it may be computed that the 60 pounds of
nitrogen added is sufficient for a crop yielding 31 bushels of
wheat; the phosphorus is sufficient for a crop of 44 bushels, and
the potassium for a crop of 35 bushels per acre. Dr. Hopkins, in his
recent valuable work on "Soil Fertility and Permanent Agriculture"
gives, on page 154, a table from which we abstract the following
data:
APPROXIMATE AMOUNTS OF NITROGEN, PHOSPHORUS AND POTASSIUM REMOVABLE
PER ACRE ANNUALLY BY
Nitrogen, Phosphorus, Potassium,
pounds. pounds. pounds.
100 bush. crop of corn 148 23 71
100 bush. crop of oats 97 16 68
50 bush. crop of wheat 96 16 58
25 bush. crop of soy beans 159 21 73
100 bush. crop of rice 155 18 95
3 ton crop of timothy hay 72 9 71
4 ton crop of clover hay 160 20 120
3 ton crop of cow pea hay 130 14 98
8 ton crop of alfalfa hay 400 36 192
7000 lb. crop of cotton 168 29.4 82
400 bush. crop of potatoes 84 17.3 120
20 ton crop of sugar beets 100 18 157
Annually applied in Japan, more than 60 14 40
We have inserted in this table, for comparison, the crop of rice,
and have increased the crop of potatoes from three hundred bushels
to four hundred bushels per acre, because such a yield, like all of
those named, is quite practicable under good management and
favorable seasons, notwithstanding the fact that much smaller yields
are generally attained through lack of sufficient plant food or
water. From this table, assuming that a crop of matured grain
contains 11 per cent of water and the straw 15 per cent, while
potatoes contain 79 per cent and beets 87 per cent, the amounts of
the three plant food elements removable annually by 1000 pounds of
crop have been calculated and stated in the next table.
APPROXIMATE AMOUNTS OF NITROGEN, PHOSPHORUS AND POTASSIUM
REMOVABLE ANNUALLY PER 1,0000 POUNDS OF DRY CROP SUBSTANCE
Nitrogen, Phosphorus, Potassium,
pounds. pounds. pounds.
Cereals.
Wheat 13.873 2.312 8.382
Oats 13.666 2.254 9.580
Corn 13.719 2.149 6.676
Legumes.
Soy beans 30.807 4.070 14.147
Cow peas 25.490 2.745 19.216
Clover 23.529 2.941 17.647
Alfalfa 29.411 2.647 14.118
Roots.
Beets 19.213 3.462 30.192
Potatoes 15.556 3.210 22.222
Grass.
Timothy 14.117 1.765 13.922
Rice 9.949 1.129 6.089
From the amounts of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium applied
annually to the cultivated fields of Japan and from the data in
these two tables it may be readily seen that these people are now
and probably long have been applying quite as much of these three
plant food elements to their fields with each planting as are
removed with the crop, and if this is true in Japan it must also be
true in China. Moreover there is nothing in American agricultural
practice which indicates that we shall not ultimately be compelled
to do likewise.
X
IN THE SHANTUNG PROVINCE
On May 15th we left Shanghai by one of the coastwise steamers for
Tsingtao, some three hundred miles farther north, in the Shantung
Province, our object being to keep in touch with methods of tillage
and fertilization, corresponding phases of which would occur later
in the season there.
The Shantung province is in the latitude of North Carolina and
Kentucky, or lies between that of San Francisco and Los Angeles. It
has an area of nearly 56,000 square miles, about that of Wisconsin.
Less than one-half of this area is cultivated land yet it is at the
present time supporting a population exceeding 38,000,000 of people.
New York state has today less than ten millions and more than half
of these are in New York city.
It was in this province that Confucius was born 2461 years ago, and
that Mencius, his disciple, lived. Here, too, seventeen hundred
years before Confucius' time, after one of the great floods of the
Yellow river, 2297 B. C., and more than 4100 years ago, the Great Yu
was appointed "Superintendent of Public Works" and entrusted with
draining off the flood waters and canalizing the rivers.
Here also was the beginning of the Boxer uprising. Tsingtao sits at
the entrance of Kiaochow Bay. Following the war of Japan with China
this was seized by Germany, November 14, 1897, nominally to
indemnify for the murder of two German missionaries which had
occurred in Shantung, and March 6th, 1898, this bay, to the high
water line, its islands and a "Sphere of Influence" extending thirty
miles in all directions from the boundary, together with Tsingtao,
was leased to Germany for ninety-nine years. Russia demanded and
secured a lease of Port Arthur at the same time. Great Britain
obtained a similar lease of Weihaiwei in Shantung, while to France
Kwangchow-wan in southern China, was leased. But the "encroachments"
of European powers did not stop with these leases and during the
latter part of 1898 the "Policy of Spheres of Influence" culminated
in the international rivalry for railway concessions and mining.
These greatly alarmed China and uprisings broke out very naturally
first in Shantung, among the people nearest of kin to the founders
of the Empire. As might have been expected of a patriotic, even
though naturally peaceful people, they determined to defend their
country against such encroachments and the Boxer troubles followed.
Tsingtao has a deep, commodious harbor always free from ice and
Germany is constructing here very extensive and substantial harbor
improvements which will be of lasting benefit to the province and
the Empire. A pier four miles in length encloses the inner wharf,
and a second wharf is nearing completion. Germany is also
maintaining a meteorological observatory here and has established a
large, comprehensive Forest Garden, under excellent management,
which is showing remarkable developments for so short a time.
Our steamer entered the harbor during the night and, on going
ashore, we soon found that only Chinese and German were generally
spoken; but through the kind assistance of Rev. W. H. Scott, of the
American Presbyterian Mission, an interpreter promised to call at my
hotel in the evening, although he failed to appear. The afternoon
was spent at the Forest Garden and on the reforestation tract, which
are under the supervision of Mr. Haas. The Forest Garden covers two
hundred and seventy acres and the reforestation tract three thousand
acres more. In the garden a great variety of forest and fruit trees
and small fruits are being tried out with high promise of the most
valuable results.
It was in the steep hills about Tsingtao that we first saw at close
range serious soil erosion in China; and the returning of forest
growth on hills nearly devoid of soil was here remarkable, in view
of the long dry seasons which prevail from November to June, and
Fig. 118 shows how destitute of soil the crests of granite hills may
become and yet how the coming back of the forest growth may hasten
as soon as it is no longer cut away. The rock going into decay,
where this view was taken, is an extremely coarse crystalline
granite, as may be seen in contrast with the watch, and it is
falling into decay at a marvelous rate. Disintegration has
penetrated the rock far below the surface and the large crystals are
held together with but little more tenacity than prevails in a bed
of gravel. Moisture and even roots penetrate it deeply and readily
and the crystals fall apart with thrusts of the knife blade, the
rock crumbling with the greatest freedom. Roadways have been
extensively carved along the sides of the hills with the aid of only
pick and shovel. Close examination of the rock shows that layers of
sediment exist between the crystal faces, either washed down by
percolating rain or formed through decomposition of the crystals in
place. The next illustration, Fig. 119, shows how large the growth
on such soils may be, and in Fig. 120 the vegetation and forest
growth are seen coming back, closely covering just such soil
surfaces and rock structure as are indicated in Figs. 118 and 119.
These views are taken on the reforestation tract at Tsingtao but
most of the growth is volunteer, standing now protected by the
German government in their effort to see what may be possible under
careful supervision.