323,000 Hk. taels in all. Beans, bean-oil, and bean-cake represented Hk. taels 76,314,797 of that total. That is pretty close to two-thirds of the total exports. And the bean-oil and bean-cake covered more than 53,384,490 Hk. taels of it. By far they are the most important items of the foreign trade of Manchuria.

BEAN-OIL MILLS-YUFANG

Southern Manchuria, especially her population centers, are literally covered with yufang. Most of them are small in scope. The simplicity of their equipments and machinery recalls the golden days of leisure. According to the official statistical table of the Department of Agriculture and Commerce of China, there is no manufacturing industry in the whole of Manchuria which can outrank the yufang, either in point of number of the mills or of the men they employ. A recent table puts the number of yufang in the three provinces of Manchuria at 247, employing 3,880 workmen. These figures are not impressive, but they take in merely the Chinese yufang, and of them only those which employ more than seven men. Now by far the greater number of the native yufang are meant to answer the local needs of small village communities. An overwhelming majority of them employ less than seven men to do the work. Including the smaller ones employing less than seven men, the number of the mills in the Three Provinces rises to 1,616. Altogether these native mills produce about 44,213,000 kin (1 kin is equal to 1.3227 pounds) of bean-oil valued at 7,050,000 Chinese dollars. These figures of course include only the native mills, most of which are old-fashioned and of wedge-press type. Large modern bean-oil mills equipped with up-to-date machinery belong to Japanese and other foreign interests. Most of them are located at Dairen and Harbin. The port city of Dairen

is by a big margin the greatest bean-oil center of Manchuria. There were no less than eighty-two mills at the end of 1923.

The bean-oil industry differs from so many other things and enterprises in Manchuria: it is not old. It is about seventy years young. In China proper it had the history of at least a century. In Manchuria yufang rose in answer to the popular demand for cooking and lighting oil which other vegetable oils could not supply. Beancake in the early days was simply a by-product of the yufang, and few people 'thought much of it. It was good enough for cattle feed, but for nothing else. Today in all the country districts one can see the yufang at work precisely as they were wont to do their business some seventy-odd years ago. Let us enter into the compound of one of them. The gate is wide open; there is nobody to protest against your visit, except a mongrel upon whose troubled and pessimistic dreams your footsteps have intruded. At one side of the gate stands a small one-story building. That is the office of the yufang. Before you is a spacious courtyard with the matting bin full of beans, and beyond that stands a large structure. As you pass into this main building, you will see at once. that it is the factory proper. It is divided into three parts.

OLD-FASHION YUFANG AND ITS METHODS

The master of the yufang conducting you introduces you into the first section and tells you that it is called Nientzefang. That is where the Manchurian soya beans take the first step in their industrial career. There the beans are crushed into thin wafers by a huge stone roller passing over a circular platform of polished granite rising from the floor. A blindfolded horse walking around the raised platform is the motive power which

323,000 Hk. taels in all. Beans, bean-oil, and bean-cake represented Hk. taels 76,314,797 of that total. That is pretty close to two-thirds of the total exports. And the bean-oil and bean-cake covered more than 53,384,490 Hk. taels of it. By far they are the most important items of the foreign trade of Manchuria.

BEAN-OIL MILLS-YUFANG

: th

Southern Manchuria, especially her population centers, are literally covered with yufang. Most of them are small in scope. The simplicity of their equipments and machinery recalls the golden days of leisure. According to the official statistical table of the Department of Agriculture and Commerce of China, there is no manufacturing industry in the whole of Manchuria which can outrank the yufang, either in point of number of the mills or of the men they employ. A recent table puts th number of yufang in the three provinces of Manchur at 247, employing 3,880 workmen. These figures are n impressive, but they take in merely the Chinese yufa and of them only those which employ more than se men. Now by far the greater number of the na yufang are meant to answer the local needs of s village communities. An overwhelming majority of t→ employ less than seven men to do the work. Inclu the smaller ones employing less than seven men, the ber of the mills in the Three Provinces rises to Altogether these native mills produce about 44,21 kin (1 kin is equal to 1.3227 pounds) of bean-oil at 7,050,000 Chinese dollars. These figures of co clude only the native mills, most of which are o' ioned and of wedge-press type. Large modern mills equipped with up-to-date machinery be1 Japanese and other foreign interests. Most of t located at Dairen and Harbin. The port city of

1

MANUFACTURING INDUSTRIES

is by a big margin the greatest ball center of Man churia. There were no less than eighty-two mills at the end of 1923.

The bean-oil industry differs from wo many other things and enterprises in Manchuria: a & not old. It is whonk seventy years young, In Chinese it had the lustry of at least a century. In Marckw ́s gufang rose in ** swer to the popular demand for woking and lighing oil which other vegetable oils sont and wwwly Man cake in the early days was singly ass in ** fang, and few people thougue such t

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rolls the stone cylinder over the granite base upon which the beans are constantly poured from an opening in a wooden box feeder attached to the primitive crusher. The thin bean wafers are gathered into a basket.

We follow this basketful of crushed beans into the adjoining section. It is called the kuofang. Here the crushed beans are steamed over shallow iron pots about half full of boiling water. After some half-hour's steaming the bean wafers are ready and soft enough to be moulded. They are emptied into a bottomless wooden mold which has been fitted into two iron hoops and lined with long grasses, which are always used as the covering for beans in the press. When the steamed bean wafers are sufficiently pressed into the grass envelope, the wooden frame is lifted and the iron hoops adjusted about one inch apart on the outside of the grass covering. The workmen keep on with the same process of wrapping the steamed beans into the grass coverings one on top of another until five of the grass-covered cakes are heaped up. These are taken into the next section of the factory.

This section is called the Chetzefang, where the cakeheaps are loaded into a press. The press, in the days of the beginning of the industry, was made of the trunk of a huge tree made hollow in the center to admit the grass-coated steamed beans. When the hollow, about twenty-three inches in diameter, was packed with the steamed beans the upper end of the pile of bean cakes was covered with a thick stout wooden lid. The pressure is applied by driving in wooden spikes between this cover and the upper end of the hollow trunk. The oil oozes out into a tank through a narrow channel cut in the trunk.

That primitive press has been improved upon a lot now, and the press which stands before us in the yufang is made of four stout wooden poles firmly planted in the ground floor. At the bottom of the press is a wooden