Farmers of forty centuries; or, Permanent agriculture in China, Korea and Japan (1900) (14799006843)

Identifier: farmersoffortyce01king (find matches)
Title: Farmers of forty centuries; or, Permanent agriculture in China, Korea and Japan
Year: 1900 (1900s)
Authors: King, F. H. (Franklin Hiram), 1848-1911 Bruce, J. Percy (Joseph Percy), b. 1861, ed
Subjects: Agriculture Agriculture Agriculture
Publisher: Emmaus, Pa., Organic Gardening Press
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: Sloan Foundation



Text Appearing Before Image:
de, is a second large stack of soil where two boys are standingat either end. In front of the tree, on the left side of the street,stands a third boy, near him a small donkey and still anotherboy. Beyond this boy stands a third large stack of soil, whilestill beyond and across the way is another pile partly composted.Notwithstanding the cattle in the preceding illustration, the don-key, the men, the boys, the three long high stacks of soil and thetwo piles of compost, the ten rods of narrow street possessed awidth of available travel-way and a cleanliness which wouldappear impossible. Each farmers household had its stack of soilin the street, and in walking through the village we passed dozensof men turning and mixing the soil and compost, preparing it forthe field. The compost pit in front of where we sat was two-thirds filled.In it had been placed all the manure and waste of the householdand street, all stubble and waste roughage from the field, all 220 TN THE SUA NT TIN a PllOVINCE
Text Appearing After Image:
COMPOSTS 221 ashes not to be applied directly, and some of the soil stackedin the street. Sufficient water was added at intervals to keepthe contents completely saturated and nearly submerged, theobject being to control the character of fermentation takingplace. The capacity of these compost pits is determined by the amountof land served, and the period of composting is made as long aspossible, the aim being to have the fibre of all organic materialcompletely broken down, the result being a product of the con-sistency of mortar. When it is near the time for applying the compost to the field,or of feeding it to the crop, the fermented product is removed inwaterproof carrying baskets to the floor of the court, to the yard,such as seen in Fig. 110, or to the street, where it is spread to dry,to be mixed with fresh soil, more ashes, and repeatedly turnedand stirred to bring about complete aeration and to hasten theprocesses of nitrification. During all these treatments, whether inthe comp