drie;d grass fuel gathered on grave lands, shanghai 



The man holds the typical rake of the Far East, made by simply bending bamboo splints 

 claw-shape, and securing them as seen in the engraving 



amounted to 23,850,295 tons, which is an 

 average of 1.75 tons per acre of their 

 21,321 square miles of cultivated land in 

 their four main islands. 



In 1908 the International Concessions 

 of the city of Shanghai sold to one Chi- 

 nese contractor for $31,000, gold, the 

 privilege of collecting 78,000 tons of hu- 

 man waste, under stipulated regulations, 

 and of removing it to the country for 

 sale to farmers. A flotilla of boats is 

 engaged dailyjn Shanghai throughout the 

 year in this service. 



On the basis of the data of Wolff, 

 Kellner, and Carpenter, or of Hall, the 

 people of the United States and of Eu- 

 rope are pouring into the sea, lakes, or 

 rivers, and into the underground waters 

 from 5,794,300 to 12,000,000 pounds of 

 nitrogen; 1,881,900 to 4,151,000 pounds 

 of potassium, and 777,200 to 3,057,600 

 pounds of phosphorus per million of 



adult population annually, and this waste 

 we esteem one of the great achievements 

 of our civilization. 



In the Far East, for more than 30 

 centuries, these enormous wastes have 

 been religiously saved, and today the 400 

 million of adult population send back to 

 their fields annually 150,000 tons of phos- 

 phorus ; 376,000 tons of potassium, and 

 1,158,000 tons of nitrogen comprised in 

 a gross weight exceeding 182 million tons, 

 gathered from every home, from the 

 country villages, and from the great cities 

 like Hankau- Wuchang-Hanyang, with its 

 1,770,000 people swarming on a land area 

 delimited by a radius of four miles. 



Man is the most extravagant accel- 

 erator of waste the world has ever en- 

 dured. His withering blight has fallen 

 upon every living thing within his reach, 

 himself not excepted, and his besom of 

 destruction in the uncontrolled hands of 



947 



