Rensselaer Republican, Volume 18, Number 15, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 December 1885 — Farming in the Old Woria. [ARTICLE]

Farming in the Old Woria.

Consul General Mattson, at Calcutta, says: “The small American garden plow, which turns a furrow of eight or nine inches, aud is so light that a ien-year-old boy can carry it on his shoulder, and a good-sized pony can work it in the field, is, in my judgment, the very plow to introduce into India, where an immense market awaits the successful manufacturer.” From our consular reports it is gleaned that the almost exclusive use of hand labor in farming operations in Japan, and the comparatively nominal cost of the rude native implements that fully meet the farmer's requirements seem to preclude the introduction of American machinery. The latter is need only on the government experiment farms. An American merchantdn Japan says he has tried to sell nearly every description of American implements, but without success. Now he has a stock in his warehouse which has been on hand for fifteen years. Farm labor is so cheap that it is practically impossible to underbid it with laborsaving machinery. The methods of agriculture pursued in China, and the tools used, are of the most primitive form. Even an apology for a shovel is seldom to be met with, while the hoe is a long, narrow and heavy blade, used for almost all purposes. The plow is a rough and clumsy affair, with only one “stilt,” and only the point shod with iron. The harrow resembles that used in this country; and the rake, when used at all, is formed of curved and split bamboo, but is frail and of little value. Farm carts or wagons are infrequent, very clumsy, of solid wooden wheels, and rudely fashioned. Threshing is performed as in the time of Moses- —by spreading the sheaves on an earthen threshing floor and driving unmuzzled cattle over the grain to tread it out. Winnowing is done on the same floor by pouring the grain from uplifted baskets for the wind to drive away the chaff, with sometimes a huge fan wielded by an assistant coolie. Sometimes the grain is ground between -millstones -ffhe under one stationary, and the upper turned by a bullock that travels in a circle. Sometimes two women grind at a mill, as in the time of Herod of Galilee. Nearly all burdens in China are borne on men’s shoulders, and thus crops are transported. Labor is so cheap and cultivation so subdivided that often every plant has a special culture, and daily irrigation with liquid manure is applied, especially with all food vegetables. x The African farmerazfire Dutchmen or descendants of Dmtehmen. 1 They are located near theXCape of \Good Hope. They are conservative In all their views, and, as a ruloTl are prejudiced against too many innovations on old-established customs, [They do not keep pace with the latest inventions. They still adhere to Jtife oldstyle farm wagon of twenty-five years ago, the motive power of/which is furnished by teams of oxen &e often mules. These vehicles are capable of carrying a dead wight of not less than eight tons. Efforts have been continually made for the past quarter of a century to introduce improved agricultural implements and machinery, but the taste of the tribes for war is stronger than their love for bucolic pursuits. Throughout nearly all of Europe, the consuls say, modern machines are being used.