CURIOUS CUSTOMS OF CHINA 



791 



-while additional areas may be expected 

 to be withdrawn as fast as they are found 

 to contain phosphate. The proposed 

 legislation is comprehensive, and, if Con- 

 gress has in mind the future cost of liv- 

 ing, the export restriction will include all 

 public phosphate land in the United 

 States now known or later discovered. 



The geologic age during which the 

 western phosphates were laid down was 

 .one of immeasurable importance to man, 

 who, millions of years afterwards, was 

 to appear upon the earth — the Carbon- 

 iferous Age — that of coal and other use- 

 ful minerals. This period followed the 

 one when the Rocky Mountain backbone 

 •of the continent was beginning to push 

 its way upward, and when a large portion 

 of North America was covered by the 

 shallow, primal ocean. The western 

 phosphate beds were deposited by the 

 washing down of the remains of myriads 

 of minute animals on to what was then 

 a shallow ocean bottom. The climate of 

 the region was almost tropical, producing 

 gigantic ferns, palms, and huge trees, but 

 the animal life which contributed to the 

 priceless phosphate deposits constituted a 

 very low order. The giant reptilia, the 

 great dinosaurs and plesiosaurs and other 

 huge creatures came later. 



The statement has been made by more 

 than one person that this whole fertility- 



of-soils question is a false alarm. Why 

 should our lands become so soon deii- 

 cient in phosphorus when the soils of 

 older countries have been farmed for 

 centuries without extensive phosphate 

 applications? The answer is that, in 

 addition to shipping abroad great quanti- 

 ties of raw farm products containing 

 thousands of tons of phosphorus, we 

 waste. The Old World has learned to 

 save and utilize sewage and various by- 

 products which we destroy. American 

 farmers have burned up millions of tons 

 of straw and cornstalks containing large 

 amounts of plant food. Dr. Van Hise, 

 of Wisconsin, estimates an annual waste 

 through the sewage of only the larger 

 cities of the United States of the equiva- 

 lent of 1,200,000 tons of phosphate rock. 

 The total of the waste of phosphorus, 

 potash, and nitrogen through exposure 

 (see page 788) and other loss in the 

 careless and ignorant handling of farm 

 manure has been stated at between $50,- 

 000,000 and $100,000,000 annually. Until 

 America learns, therefore, to avoid waste 

 to a much greater extent than at present, 

 there will be need for the application to 

 the soil of much nitrogen, potash, and 

 phosphorus. 



And the greatest of these is phos- 

 phorus. 



CURIOUS AND CHARACTERISTIC CUSTOMS 



OF CHINA 



By Kenneth F. Junor, M. D. 



NOTHING so profoundly im- 

 presses the traveler in China as 

 her complete reversal of the 

 greater number of our manners and cus- 

 toms. This fact is everywhere and every 

 <lay evident. 



The world generally believes the Chi- 

 nese to have been always a stagnant 

 nation, which is a great mistake. Changes 

 in the fundamental form and character 

 of the government have swept over China 



at frequent intervals with an intensity 

 amounting almost to revolution. 



Down through all the ages, from 1500 

 B. C. till today, certain forces run 

 through her history like golden cords 

 binding this great people into almost 

 eternal solidarity. Among these are : 



1. Belief in an omnipotent force — not 

 always a person. 



2. The deep sense of retribution, inevi- 

 table for all men. 



