ENG-1953 — Page 78

HONG KONG ANNUAL REPORT, 1953

of transport and other marketing difficulties, sweet potatoes, peanuts, soya beans and a small quantity of sugar cane are cultivated. Peanuts grow well on the red hillside and upper valley soils and certain varieties of sweet potatoes do well in sandy coastal soils during the dry period.

All farmers raise a few chickens and fatten weaners to porker weights and several cultivate the local mushrooms by time-honoured and satisfactory Chinese methods.

The intensity of cultivation with short fallow periods following a succession of crops puts a big drain on the fertility of naturally poor soils. Production is maintained by skill in the use of artificial fertilizers, nightsoil, wood ashes, bone meal, soya bean or peanut cake, duck feathers, dried animal manure and a little compost. The use of artificial fertilizers is increas- ing and the collecting of matured nightsoil from the urban areas and its distribution to the farming areas has been or- ganized on a thoroughly satisfactory basis. Investigations on the use of city garbage for the manufacture of compost are being undertaken by the Urban Services Department and Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry.

Processing. Several factories are concerned with the processing of water chestnuts, soya bean sauce, bean curd, fruit sauces, dried vegetable products and other preparations of the Chinese dietary for local consumption or export to overseas markets.

Marketing. The marketing of vegetables is conducted by the Wholesale Vegetable Marketing Organization which is a semi-official organization under the control of the Director of Marketing. It is intended in due course that producers shall be in complete control of vegetable marketing through their co-operative societies. Co-operation and marketing are discussed in detail at the end of this Chapter.

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