18 



D Some Economic Problems 



The Market. The local markets absorb huge quantities of 

 the major food products. Food for the larger cities is, of 

 course, transported some distance, although surprisingly large 

 amounts are grown on areas near or even in the cities. Rice, 

 wheat, and meat for export, as well as most of the cotton and 

 silk, seek the market distant from the place of origin. Direct 

 sale from producer to consumer is common. 



Transportation. 



(a) The canal system is most remarkable; there is nothing 

 like it in the world on a similar scale. It is estimated that 

 China has 200,000 miles of canals. These canals, however, 

 require improvement and better maintenance than now pre- 

 vails. 



(b) China has scarcely made a beginning in building 

 modern highways. The task of remedying this deficiency will 

 be an enormous one. Lack of material on the plains, the 

 prevalence of mountains and high hills over great areas, the 

 serious encroachment that highways will make upon farm 

 lands, the difficulty of maintenance due to heavy rains to say 

 nothing of the initial difficulty of getting the money to build- 

 constitute a series of difficulties. But the absence of highways 

 is a major defect in the progress of farming. 



(c) A question of even greater moment is that of rail- 

 ways. China has not over one-tenth of the minimum mifeage 

 she needs. Whole provinces could be opened for agricultural 

 production if transportation for the product to the outside 

 market were available. 



(d) Now, and for generations to come, beasts of burden 

 must be used freely for transportation of farm products. 



(e) At present, however, main machinery for transport 

 is human shoulders; yet it is believed by statisticians that, in 

 spite of the cheapness of labor; the present transport cost is five 

 to ten times what it should be with a good system of railroads 

 and highways. 



Farmers' Co-operation. In general, the idea of organized 

 co-operation may be said to have made little headway among 

 the farming people. We find here then one of the largest 

 fields of improvement in all the list of rural problems. A 

 few words about each of the forms of co-operation character- 

 istic of some of the European countries will suffice to indicate 



