VOL. XV . 



CHICAGO, APRIL, 1901. 



NO. 7 



No Market 

 in China. 



The state department has 

 made public one of the last 

 reports of Consul Wildman of Hong Kong, 

 who is credited with having, sent Aguin- 

 aldo to Admiral Dewey in the Philippines 

 and who with his family was lost aboard 

 the Rio de Janerio in San Francisco har- 

 bor a short time ago. The report states 

 that there is no market In Southern China 

 for American agricultural machinery. Its 

 agricultural land is divided into small 

 holdings, many of which are not over an 

 acre in size, and very few running over 

 ten acres. Every available inch of this 

 land is under cultivation and the planting 

 and reaping is all done by hand. Where 

 plows are used they are of home manufac- 

 ture and are as primitive as those of bib- 

 lical times. The majority of the peasan- 

 try, Mr. Wildman says, live at the rate of 

 from 2 to Scents a day, and even if they 

 could afford to purchase modern American 

 farming machinery there would be no 

 room to use it. Grain is either trod out 

 of the straw by water buffaloes or whipped 

 over an open tub. Even if an entire vil- 

 lage should combine to buy an American 

 thrashing machine it would be considered 

 too wasteful both in the way it mangles 

 the straw and the grain and in its expen- 

 sive upkeep. In southern China there are 

 no horses except the diminutive China 

 pony, and, as the agricultural country is 

 mostly flat there is no way to utilize water 

 power. As for steam, it is an impossibil- 

 ity, fuel being one of the most expensive 

 Chinese luxuries. Labor has almost no 

 value and flesh and blood are the cheapest 

 nrs on the market. 



More Land in Within a short time the tract 

 Oklahoma to of land known as the Kiowa, 

 Be Opened. Comanche, and Apache reser- 

 vations, one of the few left in the Indian 

 Territory, will be opened to settlement. 

 It comprises abcut 4,000,000 acres, lying 

 between southwestern Oklahoma, Indian 

 Territory proper, and Texas, and is re- 

 ported to .be rich and productive land. 

 Nearly 1,000,000 acres will be apportioned 

 to the Indians, leaving about 3,000,000 to 

 be opened to white settlement. For those 

 contemplating taking up land it is im- 

 . portant to know that the rush system has 

 been abolished. Notice of the opening 

 will be advertised, and application must 

 be made to the officer in charge of the re- 

 servation, who will award the lands by 

 lot. Those drawing allotments will know 

 where their land is located, and can make 

 the necessary filings, while those drawing 

 blanks will have to return home. It is 

 estimated that the opening up of this re- 

 servation will add about 30,000 to the pop- 

 ulation of Oklahoma, giving that Terri- 

 tory considerably over 400,000 people a 

 number which has an important bearing 

 upon the question of Statehood. 



New Method Next season an entirely new 

 of Irrigation system of irrigating orchards 

 will be introduced in the vicinity of On- 

 tario, Ore. It will be applied to the land 

 that is above the canals. Water will be 

 hauled in wagons to where it is wanted. 

 At the root of each tree will be placed a 

 ten-gallon water- box. This box is to be 

 filled once every two weeks during the dry 

 season until the tree is five years old. To 

 fill these boxes, on the basis of twenty 



