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survey becomes an exceedingly difficult one in the case of an area deeply indented with bays and traversed by numerous valleys, defiles and water-courses. Roughly speaking the area of the mainland is 286 square miles or 183,040 acres. An equally rough estimate gives only one tenth of this total area as arable, in spite of the fact that cultivation is carried on with characteristic endeavour to utilize every available land by means of fertilisation, by the creation of elaborate terraces on mountain-slopes, and by irrigation.
3. If these estimates are approximately correct, the total acreage of agricultural land upon which Crown rent will be payable is 18,304 acres; and the total annual Crown rent derived therefrom will be about $48,000. To what extent this may be increased by the introduction of newer and more scientific methods of cultivation, it is impossible to say; though it must be remembered that the Chinese are particularly slow to adopt innovations. Western science, moreover, is not always adaptable to the cultivation of rice or to the necessary conditions of Chinese agriculture.
4.