Farmers of forty centuries; or, Permanent agriculture in China, Korea and Japan . Fig. 21. - Goats pasturing on grave lands near Shanghai, and graves in hillylands near Canton. that one could step from one to another. They are on the higherand drier lands, the cultivated areas occupying ravines and thelower levels to which water may be more easily applied and whichare the most productive. Hilly lands not so readily cultivated,and especially if within reach of cities, are largely so used. Thesegrave lands are not altogether unproductive, for they are generallyovergrown with herbage of one kind
Farmers of forty centuries; or, Permanent agriculture in China, Korea and Japan . Fig. 21. - Goats pasturing on grave lands near Shanghai, and graves in hillylands near Canton. that one could step from one to another. They are on the higherand drier lands, the cultivated areas occupying ravines and thelower levels to which water may be more easily applied and whichare the most productive. Hilly lands not so readily cultivated,and especially if within reach of cities, are largely so used. Thesegrave lands are not altogether unproductive, for they are generallyovergrown with herbage of one kind or another and used aspastures for geese, sheep, goats and cattle, and it is not at alluncommon, when riding along a canal, to see a huge water 56 GRAVE LANDS OF CHINA buffalo projected against the sky from the summit of one of thelargest and highest grave mounds within reach. If the herbage isnot fed off by animals it is usually cut for feed, for fuel, for greenmanure or for use in the production af compost to enrich the Fig. 22. - Cluster of graves in brick vaults, lower section; and isolated grave ingarden, with two large grave mounds, upper section. Caskets may be placed directly upon the surface of a field,encased in brick vaults with tile roofs, forming such clusters aswas seen on the bank of the Grand Canal in Chekiang province,represented in the lower section of Fig. 22, or they may stand GRAVES IN SHANTUNG AND CHIHLI 57 singly in the midst of a garden, as in the upper section of thesame figure; in a paddy field entirely surrounded by water partsof the year, and indeed in almost any unexpected place. InShanghai in 1898, 2,763 exposed coffined corpses were removedoutside the International Settlement or buried by the authorities. Further north, in the Shantung province, where the dry seasonis more prolonged and where a severe drought had made grassshort, the grave lands had become nearly naked soil, as seen inFig. 23, where a Shantung farmer had just dug a temporar
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectagriculture, bookyear
