for years. It is getting more and more difficult to get the grain cheaply. If Manchuria, some sections of which are eminently fitted for rice-culture, were to be turned into a great rice-producing field, there is no doubt that she can solve the food problem of the Japanese to a large extent. The Chosen farmers entering into Manchuria and into the Maritime Province of Siberia are extending paddy fields everywhere they go. It is largely on their skill and efforts that the future production of rice in Manchuria depends. At present the total annual production of Manchurian rice does not exceed 10,000,000 bushels.

There is a considerable amount of buckwheat raised in Manchuria, but it is largely as a help-out crop. It takes up the field less than three months. Buckwheat flour is made into macaroni and cakes and consumed extensively.

Hemp for fiber is cultivated rather extensively in the valley of the Hun River and of the Sutzeho, and in the Districts of Hailung, Sifeng, and Sian in the Province of Mukden. In the Kirin Province, Nanshan district has a large acreage given to it. It is cultivated in the upper reaches of the Lalin and of the Harka as well as in the eastern part of the Chiengtao district. Small hemp-fields are also scattered all over other parts of Manchuria, but they are not of much importance as far as its production is concerned. The total production is estimated at about 20,000,000 pounds a year.

In the districts west of the Liao River, in the valley of the Itung, along the Sungari and the Hulan, hemp is cultivated for seed in answer to the demand from vegetable-oil mills. The plants cultivated for seed are not used for fiber, because the quality is very poor. The annual production of hemp seed is from 4,400,000 to 5,200,000 bushels. Jute is produced also in the valleys of the Liao, the Lalin, the Hulan, the Nonni, and the

Tumen; its total annual production is close to 30,000,000 pounds. Both the hemp and the jute produced in Manchuria are mostly for domestic consumption: less than 20 per cent. of them come on the market.

Tobacco is grown in the neighborhood of the City of Kirin and in other sections of Manchuria, but almost entirely for home consumption. Large tobacco factories. established in Manchuria with foreign capital use the domestic leaf, but always in company with imported leaf in the manufacture of cigarettes.

Cotton cultivation in Manchuria centers at Liaoyang. It extends to the Chinchou district to the west and to Tiehling on the north. Of late quite an effort is being made to try out the possibilities of American upland cotton at various districts south of Hsiungyaocheng and especially in the Japanese Leased Territory of Kwantung. The result seems to be encouraging. There is not the remotest chance of South Manchuria rivaling the valley of the Nile, of course; but at the same time, it is highly probable that it may produce, in a comparatively short period of time, sufficient raw cotton to answer the demand created by such cotton mills as Japanese enterprise and capital are planting in that section of the country.

Sugar beets in Manchuria are another crop rich in future possibilities. It is, indeed, quite new; but the South Manchuria Sugar Refining Company has thoroughly tested the fitness of the soil near the city of Mukden. The result of extensive experiments which have been carried on at the Agricultural Experimentation Station since 1914 are highly satisfactory. The average percentage of sugar in the Manchurian beets is 15.34.

FRUIT TREES AND ORCHARDS

Southern Manchuria is destined to be a great fruit belt of the Far East. There is nothing new in this claim.

The southern section of the Liao Valley, the country near Chinchou to the west of the river and all along the eastern bank from Liaoyang to Kaiping, have for centuries been famed for their fruits among the natives of the country and in the southern markets of China proper. Foreigners have persistently insisted that Chinese and Japanese fruits lack two qualities when compared with their American or European namesakes: flavor and aroma. Not so with the Manchurian fruits. There are five good climatic reasons for this: 1, In Southern Manchuria, in the valley of the Liao, the rise of temperature in the spring is rapid and the heat attains a higher degree than in many other sections of Eastern Asia. 2, In summer time, moisture is low. 3, Here the sun shines for a greater number of hours than elsewhere in fruiting season. 4, The rainfall in fruiting time is comparatively small. 5, The early frost.

The leading fruits are pears, grapes, apples, peaches, apricots, pomegranates, and cherries; of which pears and grapes are the prize fruits with the Chinese. Naturally enough, these two fruits have been developed much more than the rest. It may be added in passing that the reason why the Manchurian fruits have not won greater fame and achieved wider conquest is because the Chinese method of fruit-tree culture is exceedingly primitive, careless, and unscientific.

Pears are one of the most favored fruits with the Chinese and are produced in comparatively large quantity to satisfy extensive demand. They are of two kinds; one of which has flesh like the Japanese variety, hard and lumpy, although very juicy. Indeed, it is highly probable that the Japanese pears are nothing more or less than adventurous immigrants from Manchuria, and in their adopted home have lost some of the flavor because of the excessive humidity of Japan. There are many authorities who assert that the original home of all