Farmers of forty centuries; or, Permanent agriculture in China, Korea and Japan . Fig. 56. - Boone Road vegetable market, April 6th, Shanghai, China. The largevegetables in the lower section are lotus roots. of animal to vegetable foods in the dietaries of these people. It isnevertheless true that they are vegetarians to a far higher degree ECONOMY OF VEGETABLE DIET 121 than are most Western nations, and the high maintenance effi-ciency of the agriculture of China, Korea and Japan is in greatmeasure rendered possible by the adoption of a diet so largelyvegetarian. Hopkins, in his Soil Fertilit
Farmers of forty centuries; or, Permanent agriculture in China, Korea and Japan . Fig. 56. - Boone Road vegetable market, April 6th, Shanghai, China. The largevegetables in the lower section are lotus roots. of animal to vegetable foods in the dietaries of these people. It isnevertheless true that they are vegetarians to a far higher degree ECONOMY OF VEGETABLE DIET 121 than are most Western nations, and the high maintenance effi-ciency of the agriculture of China, Korea and Japan is in greatmeasure rendered possible by the adoption of a diet so largelyvegetarian. Hopkins, in his Soil Fertility and Permanent Agricul-ture, page 234, makes this pointed statement of fact: 1,000 bushelsof grain has at least five times as much food value and will supportfive times as many people as will the meat or milk that can bemade from it. He also calls attention to the results of many. Fig. 57. - Lotus pond with i)iant in bloom; cultivated for their fleshy roots usedfor food, shown in Fig. 56. Rothamsted feeding experiments with growing and fatteningcattle, sheep and swine, showing that the cattle destroyed out-right 57-3 pounds in every 100 pounds of dry substance eaten, andthat this passes off into the air, as the whole of wood does exceptthe ashes, when burned in the stove. They left in the excrements36-5 pounds, and stored as increase only 6-2 pounds out of the sheep the corresponding figures were 60-1 pounds; 31-9pounds and 8 pounds; and with swine they were 65-7 poimds;16-7 pounds and 17-6 pounds. But less than two-thirds of the 122 SOME CUSTOMS OF THE PEOPLE substance stored in the animal can become food for man. Hencewe get only 4 pounds in 100 of the dry substances eaten by cattlein the form of human food; only 5 pounds from the sheep; and 11pounds from swine. In view of these relations, recently established as scientific factsby rigid research, it
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