Farmers of Forty Centuries | Page 6

of this we not only throw away but
expend much larger sums in doing so.
Japan's production of fertilizing material, regularly prepared and
applied to the land annually, amounts to more than 4.5 tons per acre of
cultivated field exclusive of the commercial fertilizers purchased.

Between Shanhaikwan and Mukden in Manchuria we passed, on June
18th, thousands of tons of the dry highly nitrified compost soil recently
carried into the fields and laid down in piles where it was waiting to be
"fed to the crops."
It was not until 1888, and then after a prolonged war of more than
thirty years, generaled by the best scientists of all Europe, that it was
finally conceded as demonstrated that leguminous plants acting as hosts
for lower organisms living on their roots are largely responsible for the
maintenance of soil nitrogen, drawing it directly from the air to which
it is returned through the processes of decay. But centuries of practice
had taught the Far East farmers that the culture and use of these crops
are essential to enduring fertility, and so in each of the three countries
the growing of legumes in rotation with other crops very extensively
for the express purpose of fertilizing the soil is one of their old, fixed
practices.
Just before, or immediately after the rice crop is harvested, fields are
often sowed to "clover" (Astragalus sinicus) which is allowed to grow
until near the next transplanting time when it is either turned under
directly, or more often stacked along the canals and saturated while
doing so with soft mud dipped from the bottom of the canal. After
fermenting twenty or thirty days it is applied to the field. And so it is
literally true that these old world farmers whom we regard as ignorant,
perhaps because they do not ride sulky plows as we do, have long
included legumes in their crop rotation, regarding them as
indispensable.
Time is a function of every life process as it is of every physical,
chemical and mental reaction. The husbandman is an industrial
biologist and as such is compelled to shape his operations so as to
conform with the time requirements of his crops. The oriental farmer is
a time economizer beyond all others. He utilizes the first and last
minute and all that are between. The foreigner accuses the Chinaman of
being always long on time, never in a fret, never in a hurry. This is
quite true and made possible for the reason that they are a people who
definitely set their faces toward the future and lead time by the forelock.
They have long realized that much time is required to transform organic
matter into forms available for plant food and although they are the
heaviest users in the world, the largest portion of this organic matter is

predigested with soil or subsoil before it is applied to their fields, and at
an enormous cost of human time and labor, but it practically lengthens
their growing season and enables them to adopt a system of multiple
cropping which would not otherwise be possible. By planting in hills
and rows with intertillage it is very common to see three crops growing
upon the same field at one time, but in different stages of maturity, one
nearly ready to harvest one just coming up, and the other at the stage
when it is drawing most heavily upon the soil. By such practice, with
heavy fertilization, and by supplemental irrigation when needful, the
soil is made to do full duty throughout the growing season.
Then, notwithstanding the enormous acreage of rice planted each year
in these countries, it is all set in hills and every spear is transplanted.
Doing this, they save in many ways except in the matter of human labor,
which is the one thing they have in excess. By thoroughly preparing the
seed bed, fertilizing highly and giving the most careful attention, they
are able to grow on one acre, during 30 to 50 days, enough plants to
occupy ten acres and in the mean time on the other nine acres crops are
maturing, being harvested and the fields being fitted to receive the rice
when it is ready for transplanting, and in effect this interval of time is
added to their growing season.
Silk culture is a great and, in some ways, one of the most remarkable
industries of the Orient. Remarkable for its magnitude; for having had
its birthplace apparently in oldest China at least 2700 years B. C.; for
having been laid on the domestication of a wild insect of the woods;
and for having lived through more than 4000 years, expanding until a
million-dollar cargo of the product has been laid down on our western
coast and rushed by special fast express to the