Rensselaer Republican, Volume 22, Number 10, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 November 1889 — Farming in China. [ARTICLE]

Farming in China.

A farmer in China may- be hired by the year for from $8 to sl4, with food, clothing, head shaving and tobacco. Those who work by the day receive JpfHfrßc to 10c, with a noonday meal. At the planting and harvesting of rice wages are from 10c to 20c a day, with five meals, or 30c a day without food. Few land owners hire hands, except a few days during the planting and harvesting of rice. Those who have more land than they and their sons can till lease it to their neighbors. Much laud is held on teases given by ancient proprietors to clansmen whose descendants now till it, paying from $7 to sl4 worth of rice annually for its use. Food averages little more than $1 a month for each member of a farmer’s family. One who buys, cooks and eats his meals alone spends from $1.50 to $2 a month upon the raw material and fuel. Two pounds of rice, costing 3jc, with relishes of salt fish, pickled cabbage, cheap vegetables and fruits, costing l.}c, is tbe ordinary allowance to each laborer for each day. Abernethy’s advice to a luxurious patient, “Live on sixpence a day and earn it,” is followed by nearly every Chinaman. One or two dependent relatives frequently share with him the sixpence.