COREA. 
509 
yearly tax of 2 official sing of rice ( # “peck” — called by the people toe), 
and to the local official 2 copper cash f The tax for barley, rye, 
beans, and some other fields is only half that of a ricefield. 
The above are full taxes, levied in years of plenty; where the 
crops are only partially good, about 10 per cent, of these taxes are 
remitted, and in bad years they are supposed to be totally remitted. 
The official land measure is : — 
J1 foot square — lpV(“ handful”). An area of ground supposed 
to contain from twenty to forty young rice plants. 
10 p'a = 1 sok (“ bundle”). 
10 sok = 1 pu (“load”). 
100 pu — 1 kg el. 
Ihe number of mon Q-acre or 733* sq. yds.) to the kgel differs 
according to the class in which the field is rated, thus : — 
A field of one kgel of the 1st class has 38 mon. 
» » 2nd „ 44f „ 
» » 3rd „ 54-^ ,, 
3? jj 4th ,, 69 ,, 
33 >> 5th ,, 95 ,, 
33 „ 6th „ 152 
Ihe average yield of a favourably situated ricefield is about 30 tn 
for every tu ol seed sown ; but some fields produce as much as 60. 
Although by law the taxes are the same for all, in practice abuses 
creep in, a small and poor field often having to pay as much as, and 
even more than, a larger and richer yielding field. One explanation 
for this is that, as the fields are seldom (if ever) measured a second 
time in a generation or so (though by law they ought to be remeasured 
every twenty years), the owner gradually enlarges his field by 
encroaching little by little each year on the surrounding uncultivated 
land, paying only the taxes on the original measurements. Land is 
not sold by any fixed standard. The price of a field or plot of ground 
is regulated either by Ihe time occupied in ploughing it (this applies 
more to P yungyang and the northern than to the southern provinces), 
and (or) by its average yield of grain per year. 
At F usan the price of a field yielding two crops a year — i.e., 
barley or rye in the spring and rice in the autumn — ranges from 2,000 
to t ,000 cash per tu, determined by its more or less favourable situation 
for retaining the rainfall. 
^ The price of a field ill which rice only is planted runs from 2,000 
to 5,000 cash per tu, according to its situation and reputed yield. 
2. Crops and their Hot at ion . — In fields that produce two crops 
during the year say, rice and barley — the rice (paddy) is sown early in 
the 4th moon (May), transplanted in the 5tlf(June), and gathered 
during the 9th moon (October). The field is then ploughed up and 
allowed to lie fallow for about teu days, when barley or rve is planted. 
This ripens, and is gathered during the 4th and 5th moons (May and 
June), after which the ground is ploughed up and water run in. After 
remaining in this condition for a lew days, the field is again ploughed 
* 10 Kuan- sing = 1 Kuan-tu. 
t h r r ice ? f a silver dullar fluctuates between 500 to 750 cash. 
^ Ihe foot ’ varies according to the “ class” of the field. 
