6 
WISCONSIN STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
tricts of Europe. The numbei of square miles, as stated by Sir 
George Staunton at 1,500,000, and 1,482,091 by Malte Brun, and 
its present population, by Dixon, at about 500,000,000, averaging 
833 persons to the square mile, and when reduced to the actual 
and arable cultivated lands, equals about 2,660 souls to the square 
mile. According to Berghaus, only 1-8 of the entire territory is 
low fertile lands, the other 7-8 being the alpine ranges of the 
Himalaya, and the gigantic glaciers of the Yun-ling mountains. 
With these physical facts before him, the student of modem 
civilization is perplexed—amazed, at the sustenance of such a vast 
and crowded population. But, the solution is given in the 
artificial and natural means of diffusion which the celestial states¬ 
men seemed to comprehend at a very early period, for we find 
that in the beginning of the 13th century, the government com¬ 
menced its great system of canals, reasoning that to sustain animal 
life, animal appetites and wants must be supplied, and as the wave 
of population increased, the means to procure life’s sustenance and 
comforts must also be increased, as well as cheapened. With 
these statesmanlike views, Kublai Khan commenced the great 
system of canals, which has made that empire famous. The total 
number of canals exceeds 400, and are the popular highways of th 
country, and are used both for transit and irrigation. One of the 
principal objects is the draining swampy districts, thus utilizing 
otherwise valueless territory. The great Yun-ho, or imperial canal 
is 650 miles in length, 200 to 1,000 feet broad, and 10 feet deep. 
It connects the capital Pe King with the Yang-tse-Kiang, near 
Hang-chau, and branches off into numerous lateral canals, to the 
China sea. This is said to be the greatest canal in the world. 
Many of the canals are built with granite masonry, for miles above 
ground, and are substantial works of engineering. 
When these canals were constructed the Chinese had not dis¬ 
covered the art of constructing locks, and the boats were lifted 
from one level to another on inclined planes, by means of capstans 
and other equivalent devices. Their systems of canals generally 
cross the great rivers from north to south, thus intercrossing the 
river channels for the distribution of the products from one district 
to another, and thus this artificial flow o,f commercial sustenance, 
feeds and quickens a population more vast and crowded than in 
