COREA. 
497 
From Songto I went directly west through Hachoo, the capital of 
"Whangha province. Hachoo is also a tumble-down place, with little 
that is interesting about it. Continuing the journey I reached at last 
a farming hamlet in the district of Changyun ; and, after paying my 
respects to the magistrate, I went out to live with a Mr. An, a farmer 
of some means, who had a tiled house in a picturesque valley a mile 
and a-half from the sea-sliore. I remained here some three months, 
and found life quiet and pleasant. 
There were many callers, and among them some very interesting 
people. One farmer, Mr. T, living a mile to the west, came frequently. 
On one call at his place he showed me a map of the world that was 
quite well done for an outline. It had been brought from China by 
some of the fishing parties who cross to this coast for sea-slugs every 
spring. Mr. An owned his land, but Mr. I worked his for half the 
crop, the owner living in Soul. This is a common way of letting out 
land in Corea. The owner supplies the seed, while the tenant works 
the land, each receiving half the crop. Small patches of land are 
owned and worked by independent farmers, it is true, for which they 
possess an unofficial deed signed by the writer and a witness or two, 
but the best paddy-flats are all in the bands of wealthy owners. 
Toward the end of April the work in the fields began. The 
Coreans have two kinds of ploughs — one with a blunted end that runs 
the land into drills, and the other with a single mould-board that 
turns over a furrow very nicely. "With these single mould-board 
ploughs they break up the paddy-fields, then turn on the water, and rake 
them with a huge sort of comb-shaped harrow. Cattle— never horses — 
are used for breaking up the fields. Horses are kept for the roads 
only. 
Paddy-fields are divided, where possible, into what is called a 
“day’s ploughing.” For one maV s (ten catties or 1*63 gallons) 
sowing, §15*00 is an ordinary price. A yield of 40 to 1 is considered 
good. The best paddy-fields are never manured ; in fact, to manure 
them is to spoil the crop. The stubble and roots of the former year 
ploughed under are sufficient. The soil of the best fields is ashy 
coloured, and very sticky on the slightest rain. Second-rate fields are 
scattered over with oak leaves which are at once ploughed under, but 
even the poorest is expected to yield twenty-fold. 
Formerly a red chaffed paddy was much grown in Corea, but 
white chaffed now is the commonest variety. I'here is also a great 
deal of glutinous rice, ’which is used in making a kind of bread and 
fermented liquors. 
In seeding, a corner of the field is sown thicker; when up six inches 
or so it is cut into clumps, and transplanted at regular intervals. 
Except in the far north, paddy-fields are found everywhere. The 
flats north of Hachoo, in Whangha, and the region about Mankyung, 
in Chulla, which the Tonghaks have recently made famous, are the 
noted paddy districts. 
As for other grains, I found Barbadoes millet (, Sorghum vulgar e, 
with red grain), and panicled millet (grain of a grey colour). These 
are sown on clamp lowlands in drills, and the yield is about 200 to 1. 
The distribution of these grains is general, as I have found them on 
the Chinese border and also at Fusan in the south. Sorghum is used 
2 H 
