J Vol. XXIII, No. 10 WASHINGTON 



October, 1912 



irH 



O 



■AT»NAIL 



©(SmAIPIHIII© 



MBAZE 



Q 



THE WONDERFUL CANALS OF CHINA 



By F. H. King 



No more important practical contribution to geographic knoivledge has been published 

 in many years than "Farmers of Forty Centuries," by the late Prof. F. H. King. It is a study 

 by one of America's foremost agriculturists of the methods by which the Chinese support 

 nearly 500 million people on an area smaller than the improved farm lands of the United 

 States, and on land that they have tilled unimpaired for four thousand years. Dr. King 

 itnfortunately died when his book was completed, but the work has been published privately 

 by Mrs. King, at Madison, Wisconsin {450 pages and 250 illustrations, $2.30). The following 

 article has been abstracted from the book and all the photographs are from the same source. 



IT IS well nigh impossible by word or 

 map to convey an adequate idea of 

 the magnitude of the systems of 

 canalization, delta, and other lowland 

 reclamation work or of the extent of 

 surface fitting of fields vv^hich have been 

 effected in China, Korea, and Japan 

 through the many centuries and which 

 are still in progress. The lands so re- 

 claimed and fitted constitute their most 

 enduring asset and they support their 

 densest populations. 



Forty canals across the United States 

 from east to west and 60 from north to 

 south zvould not equal in number of 

 miles those in these three countries to- 

 day. Indeed, it is probable that this esti- 

 mate is not too large for China alone. 



In one of our journeys by house-boat 

 on the delta canals between Shanghai 

 and Hangchau, in China, over a distance 

 of 117 miles, we made a careful record 

 of the number and dimensions of lateral 

 canals entering and leaving the main one 

 along which our boat-train was travel- 

 ing. This record shows that in 62 miles, 

 beginning north of Kia-hsing and ex- 

 tending south to Hangchau, there en- 

 tered from the west 134 and there left 

 on the coast side 190 canals. The aver- 

 age width of these canals, measured 



along the water line, Vv^e estimated at 22 

 and 19 feet, respectively, on the two 

 sides. The height of the fields above the 

 water level ranged from 4 to 12 feet 

 during the April and May stage of water. 



The depth of water after we entered 

 the Grand Canal often exceeded 6 feet, 

 and our best judgment would place the 

 average depth of all canals in this part 

 of China at more than 8 feet below the 

 level of the fields. 



On map No. i (page 932), represent- 

 ing the area of 718 square miles in the 

 region traversed, all lines shown are 

 canals, but scarcely more than one-third 

 of those present are shown on the map. 

 1 1, tween A, where we began our records 

 before reaching Kia-hsing, and B, near 

 the left margin of the map, there were 

 43 canals leading in from the up-country 

 side instead of the eight shown, and on 

 the coast side there were 86 leading 

 out into the delta plain toward the coast, 

 whereas but 12 are shown. 



Again, on one of our trips by rail 

 from Shanghai to Nanking, we made a 

 similar record of the number of canals 

 seen from the train close along the track, 

 and the notes show an occurrence of 593 

 canals in a distance of 162 miles, an av- 

 erage of more than three canals per mile 



