PERMAXEXT AGRICULTURE AX/) DEMOCRACY 



539 



time that these people receive hirger 

 recognition before society ; yet we are 

 now projecting the larger results in 

 human progress. Perhaps their pains- 

 taking is most apparent in the saving 

 of human waste and the application of 

 it to the land : but one cannot think 

 that this method will be the final prac- 

 tice in any highly developed society. 

 We are not to solve the excrement prob- 

 lem on the scavenger basis, applying 

 the raw material to the land, particu- 

 larly now that we know its relation to 

 carriers of disease. Such practice will 

 not appeal to western peoples. If such 

 waste is to be used for the land, it 

 will be on the principle employed in the 

 manufacture of commercial fertilizers 

 or other treated and modified products, 

 and not on the principle of the stable. 

 Probably nowhere has the problem of 

 the disposition of human waste been 

 settled. Our present sewerage systems 

 possibly are only temporary or tran- 

 sitory, when considered against the 

 progress of civilization. Yet the orien- 

 tal method cannot be accepted as even 

 an approximate solution of the prob- 

 lem. Nor is it yet proved that human 

 waste is capable of producing the best 

 yields. 



For the most part, the areas under 

 cultivation in China are too small to 

 allow a man to express himself on them. 

 They make him a slave to mere hand 

 labor, and doom him to a condition 

 that has in it little hope of personal 

 advancement. The problem China is 

 facing in this respect, is to produce the 

 same or at least sufficient supplies with 

 fewer men, with men of more power, 

 more capital and turnover in the busi- 

 ness, more science and invention at 

 their command, more mastery of the 

 business, more economic and social 

 freedom. 



The acreage to the person in China 

 cannot yet be accurately stated. King 

 says (in the second edition) that there 

 are '^scarcely more than two acres per 

 capita, more than one half of which 



is uncultivable mountain land."" Yet 

 one is impressed, in parts of the inte- 

 rior, with the great extent of land 

 awaiting reclamation or at least better 

 utilization, Avith the bare hills, and also 

 with what seem to be inadequate yields. 

 Famine is an expectation in some of 

 the agricultural regions. For every 

 famine in any country, indictment 

 should be brought against government. 

 A good part of the population in such 

 countries as China eventually will be 

 utilized in the industries : the countries 

 will pass out of their rural phase. 

 Whether the remaining rural popula- 

 tion can secure sufficient additional 

 production to the person, by means of 

 machinery and more masterful han- 

 dling of resources, to sustain the entire 

 population can be little more than 

 speculation at this epoch. It is prob- 

 able that great fertile areas of the earth 

 will remain relatively sparsely settled 

 and will supply the congested parts. 

 One day we shall farm the seas. Per- 

 haps synthetic chemistry will contrib- 

 ute something to the solution of the 

 problem. Yet whatever the final solu- 

 tion, we must assume that the surface 

 of the earth and its yields must always 

 have significance, and that a certain 

 large part of the race must exercise the 

 arts of keepership. 



Probably we make a mistake when 

 we assume that the present rate of in- 

 crease in population is to continue on 

 the earth. But if population is to in- 

 crease to such an extent that all the 

 people are to be reduced to existence 

 rations, all one can say is that the 

 farmer should not be so reduced sooner 

 than others. Certainly the man on 

 whom the maintenance of the race de- 

 pends should not also bear the burdens 

 and the penalties of the race. 



How to secure to the farmer in 

 China or elsewhere the proper acreage 

 so that he can afford to educate himself 

 for his business is a very complex prob- 

 lem. It cannot be accomplished in a 

 country like China without pulling up 



