Geographic Literature 



505 



It is found that a change of diet is oc- 

 casionally required, and native flour, 

 which is coarser and goes a much longer 

 way than foreign flour, is from time to 

 time taken as a substitute for millet. A 

 Chinese friend of mine has five servants, 

 and he supplies them monthly with 240 

 pounds of millet, 16 pounds of native 

 flour — sufficient for two days — and on 

 two days of the month with meat. The 

 dates on which flour and meat are given 

 are fixed, and the intervals between 

 them are, as near as possible, equal. But 

 the grains are not the only useful part of 

 the tall millet ; the stalks play a very im- 

 portant role in Manchuria. The outer 

 leaf layers are woven into mats, which 

 are so much required in the trade of the 

 country for inclosing ricks and packing 

 loads of grain and beans, and for fenc- 

 ing, bridging, and house-building, and 

 where wood and coal are unobtainable 

 or dear they are used for fuel. In 

 spring, too, the roots are plowed up and 

 collected for fuel. It is estimated that 

 from 4,000 to 5,000 carts laden with 

 bundles of millet stalks come into the 

 port of Niuchwang every winter from 

 a radius of 10 to 12 miles to supply a 

 population of about 70,000." 



Manchuria is an ideal wheat field, 

 and both barley and wheat are grown 

 in considerable quantities. They are 

 sown in drills in March and harvested 

 in June, wheat ripening ten days ear- 

 lier than barley. Wheat especially is 

 cultivated on both banks of the Sun- 

 gari, within the Hei-lung-chaing and 

 Kirin provinces, and is exported in 

 junks to the Russian province of the 

 Primorsk. 



It is difficult to disassociate the culti- 

 vation of rice from a constant and abun- 

 dant water supply, but in Manchuria 

 rice is grown on dry land like other 

 cereals, and, unlike them, the crop is 

 not ruined by a superabundance of rain. 

 As, however, it is twice the price of tall 

 millet, the staple food of the people, it 

 is not extensively grown. The cultiva- 

 tion of this drv-grown rice deserves the 



attention of countries like India, where 

 a failure or deficiency of the rainfall 

 means famine or dearth. 



Mr Hosie devotes one chapter to an 

 interesting account of the manufacture 

 of bean-cake and bean oil and to the 

 manufacture of salt from sea water. 



By far the most important branch of 

 the skin and fur trade of Manchuria 

 consists of the skins of the domesticated 

 animals — the dog and the goat. Many 

 thousands of these skins are annually 

 exported from Niuchwang and Tien- 

 tsin, and ultimately find their way prin- 

 cipally to the United States. 



There are thousands of small dog 

 and goat farms scattered over the north- 

 ern districts of Manchuria and Mongo- 

 lia, where from ten to hundreds of ani- 

 mals are reared yearly. When a girl 

 is married she receives perhaps six dogs 

 as her dowry, and it can easily be un- 

 derstood that this comparatively small 

 beginning may be the foundation of a 

 large fortune, seeing that the reproduc- 

 tion of ten per annum would in a few 

 years give an enormous total. A dog 

 matures in from six to eight months, 

 and the fur is at its best during the 

 winter ; so that the animal must be de- 

 stroyed before the thaw sets in. Na- 

 ture has provided a magnificent protec- 

 tion to withstand the cold of these 

 northern latitudes, where the thermom- 

 eter (Fahrenheit) goes down to 25 

 below zero — ?". <?., 57 of frost — and it 

 is doubtful if the dog skins in any other 

 part of the world are to be compared 

 with those that come from Manchuria 

 or Mongolia, either in size, length of 

 hair, or quality. The question of food 

 for so many animals naturally presents 

 itself. If they had to be kept entirely 

 by their masters, the industry could 

 not be a paying one. The coarsest 

 grain — millet that is not good enough 

 for horses — mixed with the ordure and 

 rubbish of the farm is always ready for 

 them when by foraging outside they 

 are unable to satisfy the pangs of hun- 

 ger. 



