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 A PROGRAM OF 
 CHINESE AGRICULTURE 
 
 ABSTRACT OF 
 
 A THESIS 
 
 PRESENTED TO THE FACULTY OF 
 THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF 
 CORNELL UNIVERSITY 
 
 IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF REQUIREMENTS 
 FOR THE DEGREE OF 
 
 DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY 
 
 BY 
 
 RUI FENG, M. S. A. 
 
OlnrttpU llmuprattg 
 
 A PROGRAM OF 
 CHINESE AGRICULTURE 
 
 ABSTRACT OF 
 
 A THESIS 
 
 PRESENTED TO THE FACULTY OF 
 THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF 
 CORNELL UNIVERSITY 
 
 IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF REQUIREMENTS 
 FOR THE DEGREE OF 
 
 DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY 
 
 BY 
 
 RUI FENG, M. S. A. 
 
 JUNE, 1924 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2017 with funding from 
 Columbia University Libraries 
 
 https://archive.org/details/programofchineseOOfeng_0 
 
A PROGRAM OF 
 CHINESE AGRICULTURE 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 The fundamental solution of the problem of Chinese agricul- 
 ture is to reduce the number of farmei’s in the nation and to de- 
 velop a home market as well as a foreign market through manu- 
 facture and commerce. The solution of this problem involves the 
 national development of industries and commerce, an adequate 
 system of transportation, national development of agricultural 
 education, seed selection, disease and insect pest control, farm- 
 ers’ cooperative societies of credit, production and marketing, 
 and finally community organization in the farming regions 
 (pages 1-36). 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 LAND SYSTEMS. 
 
 The land systems in China, from 2697 B. C. to the present 
 are carefully analysed and put into chronological form. Every 
 system of great importance from Tsing Tien down to Kaw Fan 
 Shi Yat Tien and the reestablishment of the present system of 
 private land ownership has been described. Brief evaluation of 
 the economic effects of important systems is made. So far as the 
 material of this chapter is concerned, it is largely confined to the 
 recognized historical and classical writings. With reference to 
 the archaeological evidences of the land systems, we can depend 
 only upon the work of our historical archaeologists (pages 37-82). 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 CROP SYSTMS AND FARM WORK PLANNING. 
 
 The farm work plan described in this chapter is not the plan 
 of a single farm. It does not serve as a fixed plan for any farm 
 but rather as a schedule to guide and to remind the farmer what 
 should be done in every month of the year, what things he can 
 postpone to another month and what things he must do before 
 
4 
 
 A PEOGEAM OF CHINESE AGEICVLTVEE 
 
 it is too late. As a result of the study of the farm work planning 
 of Chinese farmers, at least two facts are revealed to us. The 
 first is that our farmer is a self-sufficient person, being very simi- 
 lar to the American farmer a century ago. He and his family 
 alone have constituted an economic microcosm, supply- 
 ing their wants almost entirely by their own labor. There is no 
 specialization; everybody is a “ Jack-of-all-trades”. The second 
 fact is that the family system of China is the result of agricultural 
 inefficiency in a modern sense, which is ascribed to the lack of 
 a market for farm products (pages 82-100). 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 METHODS OE MAINTENANCE OP SOIL FERTILITY. 
 
 This chapter presents some specific and some general prac- 
 tices of maintaining soil fertility used by the Chinese farmers. 
 So far as labor is concerned, most of these practices cannot be 
 carried on in the United States. Since the labor problem is neg- 
 ligible in the old countries, these practices of maintaining soil 
 fertility are quite rational and economical for the conditions in 
 China. The things remaining for the modern Chinese agricultur- 
 ist to do are to organize and to assimilate these usages on a more 
 extensive, systematic and scientific scale. It is found by statisti- 
 cal calculation that in every 1,000 pounds of all fertilizers ma- 
 terials mixed in equal proportions, there are 24.7 pounds of nitro- 
 gen, 3.0 pounds of phosphorus and 7.9 pounds of potassium. If 
 these figures are reduced to whole number, the ratio of N-P-K 
 used in China annually is 8. 0-1. 0-2. 7. It is also found that the 
 amounts of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium removed per 
 acre annually by the common crops in China are 147.4 pounds of 
 nitrogen, 19.8 pounds of phosphorus, and 100.4 pounds of potas- 
 sium. When these figures are reduced to whole numbers, the 
 ratio of N-P-K removed by the crops in China is 7.5-1.0-5.0. From 
 the above two ratios, we see at once that potassium is not suffi- 
 ciently supplied to the Chinese soil while the phosphorus and 
 nitrogen are just sufficient to feed the crops. This statement, 
 when compared with the actual practice of manuring in China, 
 has much significance. If there is anything that must be done 
 to improve our methods of manuring, the insufficiency of replace- 
 ment in the soil should be first considered. It is hoped that this 
 calculation will serve as a guide for any measure or attempt to 
 
A PROGRAM OF CHINESE AGRICULTURE 
 
 5 
 
 improve the methods of maintenance of soil fertility of our farm- 
 ers (pages 105-146). 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 ACRICULTURAL SCIENCES. 
 
 This chapter discusses what has been done in the agricul- 
 tural sciences during the present half century in China and the 
 development which is sure to come. Until the last fifty years, 
 the methods of farming in China were not scientific. But in the 
 last 20 years the science of breeding of plants and animals has 
 been well started in China. Most of the work along this line 
 is done in cotton, sericulture, grains, and tea. The sciences of 
 entomology, plant pathology, veterinary medicine, animal hus- 
 bandry, and farm mechanics have been also in course of develop- 
 ment. However, no accomplishments of great significance have 
 been seen in any of these sciences. Of course this is partly due 
 to the embryonic stage of development of agricultural science 
 in China, but the main reasons for this slow development seem to 
 be the following: 
 
 A. Most of the scientific work is not undertaken by experts ; 
 
 B. There is no cooperation between the work of the several 
 agricultural experiment stations and the colleges of agriculture ; 
 
 C. The results worked out by the agricultural experiment 
 stations and the colleges of agriculture are not made avaiable to 
 the farmers (pages 147-170). 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 AGRICULTURAL TRADE AND COMMERCE. 
 
 The analysis of Chinese agricultural trade in this chapter 
 shows the cause and effect of its present condition and what must 
 serve as the basis for its reconstruction. The problems of every 
 agricultural trade and their solution are also discussed. Al- 
 though every agricultural industry has problems of its own, 
 yet the solutions of these problems in all industries together 
 have many similarities. This is because the depression in different 
 branches of agricultural industry has been the result of similar 
 eai^ses. Thus in summary, it is possible to make out several 
 general solutions for the agricultural industry as a whole. These 
 general solutions are in the main: 
 
6 
 
 A FBOGSAM OF CHINESE AGEICVLTUEE 
 
 A. The increase of the import tariff generally and the 
 tariff on agricultural goods in particular; 
 
 B. Organization of trade associations and a national fed- 
 eration of trade associations; 
 
 C. Improvement in the quality of both raw agricultural 
 products and finished agricultural products; 
 
 D. Development of the machinery of organized marketing; 
 
 E. Organization of farmers’ co-operative associations; 
 
 F. Development of agricultural education in general and 
 agricultural extension work in particular; 
 
 G. Development of railway and oceanic transportation 
 (pages 171-232). 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 AGRIC’ULTURAL EDUCATION. 
 
 After studjdng carefully the work of the present system of 
 agricultural education and the needs of agricultural education 
 in China, the writer sets forth the ends of agricultural education 
 to be achieved and the means and agencies to reach these ends 
 in the following categories: 
 
 A. Ends to be achieved: 
 
 1. Increased efficiency of agriculture; 
 
 2. Increased contentment and prosperity among the pres- 
 ent farming population ; 
 
 3. The development and maintenance of a more progres- 
 sive and prosperous farm population than the present on the 
 farm ; 
 
 ■i. The gradual elimination of factors of agricultural 
 disaster such as famine, flood, drought, diseases, and insect pests; 
 
 5. The raising of the standard of citizenship and of liv- 
 ing in the rural districts to a status not lower than that in the 
 cities. 
 
 B. Measures to reach these ends: 
 
 1. Training agricultural specialists ; 
 
 2. Research to solve various agricultural problems, such 
 as flood prevention, dry farming, cooperative organization, rural 
 credit, controlling of insect pests and plant diseases, land tenure, 
 rural social organization, and the marketing of farm products; 
 
 3. Training men for leadership in agricultural adminis- 
 tration and agricultural organization ; 
 
A PROGRAM OF CHINESE AGRICULTURE 
 
 7 
 
 4. Furnishing data and principles for the administration 
 of agriculture ; 
 
 5. Making available all the results of research of the 
 colleges and the experimental stations to the farming population; 
 
 6. Educating farm boys and farm girls to good citizenship 
 and efficient and happy life on the farm ; 
 
 7. Assisting rural communities in the enrichment of 
 country life. 
 
 C. Agencies ; 
 
 1. An agricultural college in every province ; 
 
 2. An extension department affiliated with the college 
 of agriculture. 
 
 CHAPTERS VIII AND IX. 
 
 AGRICULTURAL ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 The programs of agricultural administration are divided 
 into three parts as follows : 
 
 A. Ends to be achieved : the ends to be achieved should be 
 the same generally as those of agricultural education. 
 
 B. Measures to reach these ends; 
 
 1. Economic and social measures ; 
 
 2. Agricultural science measures ; 
 
 3. Cooperative investigation and extension measures. 
 
 C. Agencies : 
 
 L National Ministry of Agriculture which has the fol- 
 lowing bureaus ; 
 
 a. Bureau of agricultural economics; 
 
 b. Bureau of chemistry and soil; 
 
 c. Bureau of plants and crops; 
 
 d. Bureau of animal husbandry ; 
 
 e. Bureau of entomology and economic zoology ; 
 
 f. Bureau of forestry; 
 
 g. Bureau of fisheries; 
 
 h. Bureau of drought and flood prevention ; 
 
 i. Bureau of rural engineering; 
 
 j. Bureaxi of weather; 
 
 k. Department of agricultural extension and investi- 
 
 gation. 
 
8 
 
 A PEOGEAM OF CHINESE AGEICULTUEE 
 
 2. Provincial Ministry of Agriculture : 
 
 a. Department of Council; 
 
 b. Department of Technical Administration ; 
 
 c. Department of General Administration (pages 268- 
 
 349). 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 The chapters of this study have presented many evidences 
 to the readers that prosperity of agriculture can be secured only 
 in conjunction with the prosperity of industry. Without the 
 latter, the former must remain as it has been for thousands of 
 years. In order to help to maintain the world peace, China must 
 be developed industrially and agriculturally. She must open 
 her natural resources and maintain an equal standard of material 
 accomplishment with the advanced nations of the world (pages 
 350-359). 
 
 REFERENCES AND BIBLIOGRAPHY— (pages 360-373).