- 17 



C Possible Improvements in Production 



The Maintenance of Soil Fertility. In many areas soil 

 fertility is remarkably well preserved, due to such practices as 

 the large use of nightsoil, of flood silt, of canal and pond mud, 

 and of vegetable waste in the compost. In other areas there 

 are, however, much washed soil, wide spaces of erosion, a 

 serious lack of organic matter, and a comparative lack of animal 

 manure. All these defects, except the last, can be remedied, 

 but only by radical changes among large groups of farmers and 

 over wide areas. 



Farm Practice. It is difficult to pass judgment on Chinese 

 farm practice without much study of the problem. The gar- 

 deners use minute care, work steadily, and are extremely skillful 

 handlers of plants and in adapting means to ends. Among 

 the farmers probably better methods of fitting the land could be 

 developed and possibly better organization with reference to 

 general farm management could be successfully introduced. 



Improving Plants and Animals. In this field lies one of the 

 largest opportunities for improvement. Both by seed selection 

 ,and by the breeding of new and better varieties and types, 

 great results will accrue. For, although China has contributed 

 largely to the list of edible plants, there is at present practically 

 no attention paid by the farmers to improvement, and 

 deterioration rather than advance is, on the whole, the 

 characteristic situation. These improvements bear vitally upon 

 both quantity and quality of product, upon grading for market, 

 and upon resistance to disease. 



Combatting Diseases and Pests of Plants and Animals. 

 There is no way of estimating losses from these causes, but 

 they must be enormous, and the farmers are practically helpless 

 at present. They have no knowledge of these matters, and 

 few to tell them. There are no laws to protect. 



Animal Husbandry. It is not at all probable that the use of 

 animals for any purpose can increase materially in the regions 

 of densest population. But there are possibilities for animal 

 husbandry in some areas. It is believed that grazing is better 

 for sheep and goats than for cattle. The winter feed problem is 

 a serious one, and the prevalence of such diseases as rinderpest, 

 anthrax, foot-and-mouth disease, even more serious. But the 

 grazing of hillside, mountain, and forest; the use of the soy bean 

 for supplementary feed; the wider utilization of vast natural 

 grazing areas in North China, are nevertheless all possible 

 developments. 



