NOTES AND QUERIES
193
In areas where the land was poorly-drained, vegetables were grown on raised soil beds 4 to 6 feet wide with ditches of about 2 feet deep on all sides and 1 foot of water was kept in the ditches. The beds were raised for the purpose of drainage. The ditches between served also as a reservoir for regular irrigation. This flood furrow system provides a constant supply of water to the crop, a well-drained soil condition for root growth and a good storage of water for every bed in the field. This saved labour from carrying water to and fro the water sumps to the crops.
A wooden water lifting machine with a chain carrying wooden plates and running on two wheels to force water up a trough by turning one of the wheels was used to lift water from a stream or a pond. Several machines of this type were used for lifting water to a higher level, usually by no more than a few feet. Because of the high cost of labour, these machines were replaced by water pumps introduced in the early Nineteen-fifties.
Dependence on locally available organic manures is the characteristic of the traditional farming. Cattle manure was used mainly for growing rice. Droppings of animals were collected and piled up in a yard. For convenience of application, the well-rotted manure was sun-dried and stored for future use. Compost made of household refuse, crop residues, weeds, and other waste vegetative materials, and pond mud were used for manuring fruit trees. Night-soil, pig and poultry manures, bone meal, duck and chicken feather, wood and grass ash, and oil seed cake were used for growing vegetables. Lime was frequently applied to neutralize the predominant acid soil.
In general, the soils in Hong Kong are poor in plant nutrient. It is of interest to note how the local rice growers, with a limited application of animal manure, can maintain the fertility of their fields to produce continuously from 800 lb. to 1,600 lb. of paddy per acre per crop or from 1,600 lb. to 3,200 lb. reaped from two crops planted in a year. A possible explanation is that the growth of some species of blue-green algae on the wet paddy land can fix atmospheric nitrogen and subsequently release the nutrient to the crop after they are ploughed or tramped into the soil.
Rice was chosen and planted over large areas of land because it is the most reliable food crop and gives reasonable yields of grain year after year from the same field without rotation. Two groups
NOTES AND QUERIES
193
In areas where the land was poorly-drained, vegetables were grown on raised soil beds 4 to 6 feet wide with ditches of about 2 feet deep on all sides and 1 foot of water was kept in the ditches. The beds were raised for the purpose of drainage. The ditches between served also as a reservoir for regular irrigation. This flood furrow system provides a constant supply of water to the crop, a well-drained soil condition for root growth and a good storage of water for every bed in the field. This saved labour from carrying water to and fro the water sumps to the crops.
A wooden water lifting machine with a chain carrying wooden plates and running on two wheels to force water up a trough by turning one of the wheels was used to lift water from a stream or a pond. Several machines of this type were used for lifting water to a higher level, usually by no more than a few feet. Because of high cost of labour these machines were replaced by water pumps introduced in the early Nineteen-fifties.
Dependence on locally available organic manures is the charac- teristic of the traditional farming. Cattle manure was used mainly for growing rice. Droppings of animals were collected and piled up in a yard. For convenience of application the well-rotted manure was sun-dried and stored for future use. Compost made of house- hold refuse, crop residues, weeds and other waste vegetative materials, and pond mud were used for manuring fruit trees. Night- soil, pig and poultry manures, bone meal, duck and chicken feather, wood and grass ash, and oil seed cake were used for growing vege- tables. Lime was frequently applied to neutralize the predominant acid soil.
In general the soils in Hong Kong are poor in plant nutrient. It is of interest to note how the local rice growers, with a limited application of animal manure, can maintain the fertility of their fields to produce continuously from 800 lb. to 1,600 lb. of paddy per acre per crop or from 1,600 lb. to 3,200 lb. reaped from two crops planted in a year. A possible explanation is that the growth of some species of blue-green algae on the wet paddy land can fix atmospheric nitrogen and subsequently releases the nutrient to the crop after they are ploughed or tramped into the soil,
Rice was chosen and planted over large areas of land, because it is the most reliable food crop and gives reasonable yields of grain year after year from the same field without rotation. Two groups
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