Minnesota man, I
believe), and found him enthusiastic over his corn crop just
harvested. "I have been so surprised by the growth of corn this year,"
he declared, "that I could hardly believe my own eyes. I have never
seen finer seed ears anywhere." Among American states, only Iowa, he
declares, is probably more fertile than Manchuria; with stock-raising
to prevent land-deterioration, all the vast southern section could
beat Illinois growing crops, and the same thing could be said of the
northern country but for its colder climate. About Harbin, where the
South Manchuria Railway joins the Trans-Siberian Line, one may see
cuts thirty feet deep and the soil rich to the bottom. Most of
Manchuria is level--strikingly like our Western Corn Belt and Wheat
Belt--and the {74} soil is of wind-drift origin "like a great
snow-blanket," very easily tilled. The plowing is done with a
steel-tipped wooden beam such as I have already written of seeing in
Korea, and only the favoring physical texture of the soil explains the
fat harvests of food, feed, and fuel achieved under such methods.

It has been a positive joy to me in traveling through the country here
in late October to see the great shocks of kaoliang, millet and corn
(even with labor at 20 cents a day out here, the people don't pull
fodder!), quaint-looking farmhouses almost surrounded by well-stuffed
barns, and corn cribs packed until the overflowing yellow ears spill
out the ampler cracks. The kaoliang is a sort of sorghum, the grain
being used for food, while the stalks, which contain but little sugar,
are used for fuel. Consequently the barnyards packed to the limit and
running over with

"The garnered largess of the fruitful year"

not only mean feed for all the variegated animals that are used in
Manchurian agriculture, but fuel for the long Manchurian winters as
well. I even find the peasants digging up the roots and stubble to be
dried and burned in the houses.

One sees but a small proportion of good horses here, and practically
no four-wheeled farm wagons. Unlike Japan, however, Manchuria does
have its farm vehicles: great heavy two-wheeled carts drawn by from
two to eight horses, donkeys, and asses. Sometimes there is a big
horse or two, then one or two donkeys half the size of the horses, and
a couple of little asses or burros half the size of the donkeys--and
maybe a bull thrown in for good measure. It looks as if the Whole
Blamed Family of work-stock had b