3. The Fruits of Manchuria.
grapes
The only fruits grown in Manchuria of any importance are the hard pears and red grapes that are produced in quantity around Kwang-ning. The quality of the is good, being quite similar to the wine grapes of California-to the European taste, however, not in any way equal to the Concord, Catawba, and Delaware grapes of the States. The pears are hardy, growing much farther north than pears are found in America, but the quality much inferior to the American "Bartlett" or "Anjou." In the hills about Kirin, and also in South-East Manchuria, wild plums, cherries, and crab apples grow that would undoubtedly give excellent hardy roots for grafting with improved but less hardy types. The lack of a heavy blanket of snow on the soil in the winter and the strong drying winds of spring are undoubtedly great drawbacks to successful fruit culture in Manchuria. There are favoured localities here and there, however, where foreign fruits should do well,
4. The Live Stock of Manchuria and Mongolia.
Almost no live stock is kept by the Manchurian farmer except the mules and ponies used for carting. Swine roam the yards and fields as scavengers, but are rarely, if ever, bred and fed as a part of the farm business. Practically no cattle or sheep are bred in Manchuria, the small number of cows used for dairy purposes to supply foreign demand coming from Mongolia. In Mongolia, however, the grazing of cattle, sheep, and ponies is the only industry of the people, and even here the cattle and sheep industry is not of any great size, for the demand is practically limited to the Russian military, Mahommedans, and the small foreign demand. The Mongolian cattle are bred in the interior at Jar-sar-tu, in the Tai-nan-fu district; Je-lai-tu, south-west of Tsitsihar; and Tu-su-tu, west of Tai-nan-fu.
The young cattle are grazed over the wide plains, and between the ages of 6 and 8 are driven to market. The largest markets for Mongolian cattle are Hailar, Blagovestchensk, Harbin, Kuan-cheng-tzu, and Ching-cha-tun. About 5,000 cattle are butchered monthly in Harbin, one-third of which are handled by an Australian packing plant and delivered to the Russian military at Vladivostock. The Mahommedans buy and butcher small numbers of cattle in all the important centres of Manchuria. Their methods are crude and rough, and it is impossible to estimate the extent of this demand.
5. Agricultural Machinery.
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Hand labour, assisted by the crudest kind of tools and machines, sows and garners the crops, the amount of horse-power used being small in comparison with methods of agriculture prevalent in the State 100 years ago, and yet greater than that employed to-day in the rice field of Japan. The Manchurian plough resembles the old-fashioned “corn plough or potato-digger of the States, and the ploughshare made by the native smith costs 2 dol. 50 c. (silver currency) (1 dollar gold) the remaining parts of the plough being home made or cheaply constructed by the local carpenter. This machine is commonly used to plough the soil, and also for inter- tillage after the crops are growing. In some places a crude machine is used for dropping the seed, but more commonly the seed is dropped by hand. The harvesting is always done by hand with a small blade costing the farmer about 20 cents (silver currency) (7 cents gold). Kaoliang, beans, millet, wheat-in fact, all crops-are cut with this same tool by the most awkward and back-breaking methods conceivable. A few wooden shovels and forks, a steel hatchet, and perhaps an adze or mattock usually completes the outfit. The Manchurian farmer, as a general rule, has no machinery other than those just mentioned, and his cart and rope harnesses.
6. Methods of Crop Cultivation.
In all parts of Manchuria the staple crops, kaoliang, beans, millet, wheat, tobacco, cabbage, turnips, &c., are sown and cultivated by the same method, namely, planting in rows about 18 inches apart, and as the growing season advances the soil is ridged or hilled up against the crop rows with the native plongh. Flat cultivation for wheat and millet, or shallow cultivation for such crops as kaoliang, maize, and potatoes, is never practised by the native farmer. Where this universal practice of ridging the land came from no one seems to know, but one can surmise that it is a
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custom of land tillage practised in the rice-fields of South China, and custom and tradition have established the practice in this northern country. There does not seem to be any theoretical or practical justification for this method of cropping the soil, and it appears illogical, awkward, and unnecessary. Many reasons are advanced by the Chinese for this custom, chief among which are following: That when the land is ridged the soil on one side of the ridge may absorb the sun's rays in the morning, and on the other side in the afternoon; that ridge cultivation is necessary to keep the roots of the crops above standing water; that this plan of cropping is necessary to keep out the woods; that when wheat is sown in rows the wind cannot lodge it; and that the continual placing of fresh soil on the ridges gives more fertility to the growing crop.
In the absence of accurate experimental data it is useless to try and disenss these theories with logical pro and con evidenced at this writing. Some of the theories advanced are self-evidently fallacions, and it is doubtful if anything is gained by the practice, and highly probable that much is lost. Thorough and even mechanical stirring of the soil with a good plough should put the soil in an absorptive condition for rain water, and provide a more favourable habitat for seeds than the seed-beds provided under the present system.
Ploughing is universally done in the spring-time immediately or conjointly with planting, and the sced-beds are left loose and open before the season of sand-storms begins. Throughout the growing season the native farmer runs his plough between the crop rows and throws the soil about the crop roots, until at harvest-time the ridges about the roots are 8 to 10 inches above the bottom of the intermediate furrow. All the crops when cut by hand tools are shocked in the field and later stacked about the clay floor that is used for threshing the grain. The native farmer builds a beautiful rain-proof stack, and one often sees "ricks" or stacks of kaoliang, millet, or beans 20 feet high. Threshing is done with flails and with stone rollers drawn over the grain by ponies or oxen, the chaff being separated from the grain by tossing the grain into the air with wooden shovel, In the native mills one occasionally sees a rude fanning mill that will remove chaff and dirt from the grain.
7. Crop Yields and Prices.
The figures given herewith are not accurate, nor are they averaged from many sources, but merely the estimates of Chinese farmers and traders picked up at random in North Manchuria. Like every other country, the yield varies between wide limits according to the season, and price with locality and the relations of supply and demand : wheat, 15 to 18 bushels; kaoliang, 30 to 50 bushels; beans, 20 to 25 bushels. At Tie-ling (October 1908) the native mills were paying 1 dol. 15 c. (silver currency) for 82 catties of wheat, or approximately 60 cents (gold) per bushel of 60 lbs., and beans at Kirin were selling for 24 cents (silver currency) per catty, or approximately 75 cents (gold) per bushel of 60 lbs.
8. Land Ownership and Size of Farms.
In Southern Manchuria freeholding is the common rule and very little tenancy exists. In the northern provinces the farmers lease their land, usually through an intermediary, from the Manchu Princes, who received large land grants from the Crown in past times. While this land is leased the method of holding is virtually ownership, the lease being a lease in perpetuity. Tenancy is rare also in the north, freeholding the common thing. A large landowner was interviewed at Kirin who has about 100 tenants on portions of his land, the average amount being about 20 acres and the rental a stipulated rental of about 5 bushels of beans per acre.
It is, of course, impossible to estimate the average size of the farms in Manchuria. In the south the farms probably average from 5 to 15 acres in size, with occasional large holdings of 100 to 200 acres, the larger holdings rarely being managed by one man but leased out in small tracts to labourers. North of Kuan cheng-tzu the population is more sparse than in South Manchuria, and one often sees fields of kaoliang and beans 20 to 40 acres in size.
9. Farm Labour,
Native labour is often employed in South Manchuria for 30 to 40 dollars (silver currency) per year with board (12 to 16 dollars gold), and transient labour from Shantung
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