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THE OMAIU SUNDAY BEE: AUGUST 1. 1000.
Grain Fields of Manchuria to Be Tilled Under American Methods
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THRFSHINO MILLET IN MANCHURIA.
DirtECTOR CHAN AND THE PRILL INSTRUCTOR
AT THE AGRICULTURAL COLLEUB AT VUSDEJt-
TARTAR STUDENTS AT MUKDEN AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE,
Mi
(Copyright, lflOB, by Frank O. Carpenter.)
UK HEN, Manchuria, 1909. (Spe
cial Correspondence of The
Bee.)-Vlthtn two miles of this
city, nwrriiiiwloci by lands a
i lr. lh Uvl Uiver valley.
mid rmrnlnK methods as old
aa ttiope, of the clta of Egypt, a moOern
agriuuliuial aca-.erny has been atarted by
tim nfovernmen-. officials of this back
woods of Clilna They have appropriated
tVJ,(xJ) a ytar Ivr lie support and have a
live experiment! farm of 300 acrea con
nected with It
Tfila ngrlculti ral station was founded
by Tang bhao H the former governor of
Muktion, who -icently went to America
to thank ua for the return of the Boxer
Indemnity. I Understand that a part of
kla mlsflon wan to look up educational
taient for his agricultural academy, and
that he will bilng a dozen or ao young
Americans bacll with him. He has al
ready Induced two of our well known agri
cultural experts to come here. These are
Mr. E. C. Parker and Mr. W. H. Tom
have, who have both been connected with
the University of Minnesota. Both have
performed good experimental farm work
In the United States. Prof. Parker has
written several books and has also dons
excellent work for the government at
Washington.
These young men are now on the ground.
They arrived some months ago and since
then have been traveling over Manchuria
on horseback and in carts, studying the
country and Its agricultural possibilities.
They have covered a large part of south
ern Manchuria and have srone thrnnrh
at the Fame school. The new aftricultural
academy has as Its director Mr. C. B.
Chan, a young Chinese graduate of tha
University of California, who speaks Eng
lish as well as any reader of this news
paper, and the text books he uses ur
bawd upon the work of our agricultural
department In Washington.
On the Way lo the Farm.
It was through the kindness of M. T.
Llnng whom I had previously met at tha
viceroy's yamen, that Director Chan called
upon me at my Inn and arranged for nie
to visit the farm and school. Messrs. Par
ker and Tomhavo went with us, and It
was In two old Russlnn droschkles which
were stranded here by the war that w
galloped through th wide streets of Muk
den and out Into the country. On our way
we passed much farm produce coming
into the city. There were great loads of
sorghum seed hauled In Chinese carts by
rough Manchurlan ponies and carts piled
high with bags of soy beans. Now and
then we passed a grain shop where millet
and sorghum seed were set out for sale
In round basket bins the size of a hogs
head, and again went by men and anlmala
bringing bean stalks and sorghum cane
Into the city for fuel. Aa we did so Prof.
Parker remarked:
"That Is one of the curses of Manchu
rlan farming. These people skin the land
of Its natural fertilizers. Every corn
stalk, every bean vine and every weed la
saved for fuel. Even the stubble of the
sorghum Is pulled up by the roots by the
poor people, who are allowed to go over
the fields after the crop Is harvested.
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stack to watch the farmers thrash out
the sorghum seed. They took the canes
from the stack and cut off the heads and
laid them on a, thrashing floor. A stone
roller, hauled by a mule, was then driven
round and round over the seeds until they
were crushed off the stalks. The refuse
was then winnowed in the wind and the
stnlks were piled up for fuel. Before the
seed is ready for food it must be again
ground to get off the hulls. Sorghum grain
la the staple diet of the Manchu. It la the
rice, wheat, corn and meat of the people.
The grain growa everywhere, and that on
talks twice a high as
corn grows equally well.
Director Chan tells me that the boya are
greatly Interested In their work. They
enter the college for five years, having a
preparatory course of two years, after
which comes a three-year course in the
academy proper. They are not charged for
ti.ltlon or board, and the matter of en
trance la largely hy the favor of the offi
cials. Their education Is patterned after
the short course schools of America, with
the Idea that the Institution will soon be
advanced to the grade of a flrst-olass agri
cultural college, in which instruction will
a man. Indian be given by American professors
SORGHUM GROWS TWICE A MAN'S HEIGHT.
Manrhnrln's ew Farm School.
Passing onward through scenes like these,
we at laat reached the school. It consists
of a number of one-story brick buildings
surrounding a large court, In which is a
beautiful garden. The buildings are devoted
to the clans rooms, laboratories and dor
mltories of the students. They are well
built, and indeed would be quite respect
able .in any of the better class agricultural
schools of America. There are rooms for
bacteriological work and plant breeding;
and the lecture halls are equipped with
maps and diagrams such as are used In
the United States. At present one-half of
the instructors are Chinese, some of whom
have been educated in America, the other
half Japanese, the latter having been
chosen through the pressure exerted by
the Japanese consul at Mukden.
some of the sparsely settled northern por- They pu" "v,ry ""lk leavln Mother
lions, wnicn they tell me promise to be
come one of the great bread baskets of
Asia and possibly its meat basket as well.
Indeed, this new agricultural movement
Is one of the most encouraging evidences
of the awakening of Asia, and that It
should be so far advanced In Manchuria,
beyond the frontier of China, Is remark
able. It is also to be noted that the move
ment has Its origin In America, and that
it Is being backed with the American
education of Chinese brains. His excel
lency Tanc Shao Tl, who Is the prime
mover and head. Is a graduate of Yale
university, ard M. T. Liang, who Is the
chief counselor of the viceroy, and also
Tank Shao Yl's assistant, was educated
Earth naked and the land as bare as your
hcand. This has been done from genera-
have ro fences, and their boundaries are
marked only by stones. The roads whch
cut their way right through the farms
look more like ditches than roads, and
turn this way and that across country.
Now our droschky was tilted at an anglo
tton to generation, and notwithstanding all of forty-five degrees, and now we bounced
this the soil Is still rich." high as we went over the drains crossing
$ ; the roadway. We frequently passed be-
the Farms. tween great ditches, and I was told that
mile from the hotel the farmers, dug them to keep the traffic
Among
We drove about
before we reached the city wall. This is
thirty feet high. It has a great gate on
the Bide of the town near which the farm
lies. We wound our way out through
this, and then went perhaps two miles fur
ther, passing many new tiled houses, until
we reached the mud wall which incloses
the suburbs. We were soon In the country
rnd In the midst of such farming as Is
common In central Manchuria. The fields
out the fields and destroying their crops.
I asked where were the houses and barns,
and was pointed to a farm village which
stood on a little hill off by itself. The
Manchus do not live on their farms. They
herd together In villages of mud houses
and go out to the fields. There are no
barns, In our sense of the word; and neither
hay nor straw stacks. About some of the
settlements one sees licks of sorghum can-i
and piles of bean stalks. Such stuff is
often corded up on the roof a and some
times against the walls.
This stuff Is not Intended for food. It If
the wood and coal of the farmer. All the
heating of the home Is done hy the kang, a
sort of a ledge two feet high, which fills
one part of a room, and which has a
series of flues beneath It. Thefce flues are
heated by the kitchen fire. A little bundle
of straw or corn stalks will send the flames
running through the flues and make the
brick ledge quite hot. It is upon this ledge
that the farmer's family sit during the
daytime, and there, sprawled out, side by
side, they fleep at night. The houses are
nlmost all small, but many have outbuild
ings which are used for the donkeys and
ponies.
Among the villages, rising high over the
houses, are many ragged trees filled with
great bunches of what I at first thought
were crows' nests. Every tree we saw was
full of such nests; and I asked Director
Chan as to the birds which made them.
He replied:
"Those are not nests; they are bunches
of mistletoe, an air plant which grows all
over Manchuria. You will find thousands
of such bunches In every part of the
country. They are very destructive, and
are even worse for the trees than are
the orchids of tropical climes. Indeed,
they are the orchids of Manchila."
Coming closer I had a chance to ex
amine these trees. The mlBtletoe bunches
are scattered all over them, and their
yellow and red berries may be seen shin
ing out of the green. No rosy-cheeked
American belle would dare to wander
about Manchuria. She would be under the
mistletoe half the time, and her lips would
surely wear out,
At another place we stopped at a grain
Tartar Boys Learning Farming-.
After a cup of tea. Director Chan called
in the commandant In charge of the school
and asked him to put the boys through
thtir drill in our honor. He did so. There
were altogether 150, ranging In age from
IS to 20. The older students are big, burly
fellows, and aa they came forth, dressed in
their uniforms, they looked strong enough
to cope with almost any problem, military
or farming. At the command of their
leader they went through a series of gym
nastic exercises with as much skill as I
have seen In the Japanese schools, and in
their marching they exhibited the goose
Makden, Experimental Farm.
Leaving the School, we took a stroll over
the farm. This comprise about 300 acres
of as good soil as any in southern Ohio.
It has upon It mulberry plantations to
raise leaves for the silk, worms of a de
partment to be started next year. The
trees are growing well, and, aa wild silk 1
already produced In southern Manchuria,
Director Chan thinks that an Industry fur
nishing good silk may be founded. In an
other part of the farm I was shown or
chards of native fruit trees, together with
several hundreds of apples, pears, peaches
and other trees from the United States.
There were walnuts from California and
grape vines from a nursery on Long Island
sound. All seemed to thrive.
The farm Is experimenting on Wheat,
tobacco and cotton, aa well aa on other
vegetables and grains. It is raising sugar
beets which are IS per cent sugar. This
la 8 or 4 per cent more than Germany's
crop, and It is thought that the Manohur
lan market may be eventually be supplied
by the home grown material. The diffi
culty is that the people prefaa a can
sugar, and that unrefined.
t !" 'im t
Stock Mreedlaa.
The Mukden authorities are attempting
the breeding of fine stock. They have sev
eral Ayrshire and Shorthorn oowa and
bulls and are crossing them with the na
tive cattle. They will try to breed bet
ter horses and to Improve the native
step after the most approved manner of
the German Infantry. I understand that a
military drill is now taught in all the mod
ern schools about Mukden, so that the edu
cated Manchus will be a nation of well
trained soldiers.
Mr. Parker tells me that tha chief cattle
In this part of the world now come from
Mongolia. The natives use the wild
prairie sandy uplands as grazing grounds
(Continued on Page Three.)
Up-to-Date Building Methods Make Busy Scene on New Theater Site
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MASONS ON THE NORTH WALL OB" THE NEW BRANDEIS THEATER.
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EXCAVATING FOK FOUNDATION tlElKA fOli NEW BRANDEIS THEATER.
.HAT Omaha may have a new
TT I theater tor the first prcduc-
I tlon of the "Merry Widow" In
In n ill this city on Monday, December
fCr,l 27, 310 men, empoyed l:i two
shifts of eleven hours each, are
working night and day in a big hole at
the corner of Seventeenth and DougUx
streets under the supervision of F. W.
Burnhum, superintendent for Thompson &
Ktarrett, contractors with offiets In New
York and Chicago.
Since lust Thursday when the night fore
was permanently installed not an hour
has been lost on the work, and until the
theater proper Is ready far occupancy in
December tho contractors will continue to
rush the job, perunuint; not a single, hour
to be wasted.
To Insure good men for the work the
firm is paying from 20 to 30 cen.s an
hour for common labor, and is giving
men with teams fc.ol) per day. For a
while, at the beginning of the work, ihe
contrucuirs hHd a haid time Retting hand,
but wltiiit: lue idsl !.' c-ks they nave
ecu nd us man u uiey can use. Willi
the conipletioii of the busemeiu and found
ation work tne present fuie wul pioou
bly be increased.
Kur this Krundeis theater building uT5
carloads of brick will be required. In th-j
walls up to the first story alone, l,5u0 OOJ
brick will be used. Two hundred thous
and cubic ft et of re-enforced coitureie
will be placed In the structure. It will
take forty carloads of steel for the frame
work and other parts of the building. The
cement placed In the building will amount
to 1& carloads, or over JS.iwO barrels, in
the basement and other pans there will
be Ufa colums or piers.
At night, for limiting every nook of the
structure, twenty solar electric uic lights
will be distrlbuied over the entire placj.
One man gives his time to keeping tnese
lights in older and removing litem to
various placts as the work demands. At
night the same number of teams, iwen.y,
as are used in the day will be kept busy
hauling lumber, brick, steel und outer
material needed In putting up the best
theaier buildup weM ot Cliti agu.
With sucii a lii force or nidi working
In this small apace the law vl ueodenis
would pioLubty call for una or more
deaths before the building Is finished A
writer In Chicago, in fact, has figured il
out that for evi ry story of u sky scraper
one life is taken as toll. In all cities
where great steel girders are placed In the
structures and wheie considerable machin
ery Is employed in the work no contractor
starts out with a J.b without expecting t
lose some f Ins workmen by accidents
before the work Is finished.
But In the Brandels Theater building
Superintendent Burnham declares there
will not be one life lost. A smart looking
young fc-llow, who evidently hau heard
about the accidents on Chicago's skyscrap
ers, approached the superintendent the
other day and a.ked whether il would
pay him to hang around the building in
hope of seeing some one killed. The
query affected, tu superintendent's pride,
for he has had only one death on his
work since he has been In the business,
and he spoke to the young fellow in the
following language:
"Hang around here If you want to, but
yours will probably be the only death It
you do. We don't have any accidents on
this Job worth mentioning, and I'll bet
100 to 1 that there Is not a life lost here.
"We take special precaution to prevent
accidents, and you can count all that we
do have on the fingers of one hand. In
making the foundations we shore up the
dirt walls; that is, we put up strong
braces of planks and pillars to keep the
dirt from falling In on the men. If we
didn't shore we might have" one or two
deaths before we got through with the
foundation work.
"No, sir, young'fellow; there are going
to be no serious doings around this job.
So far. In over a month's work, we have
had but one accident, and that was not
a serious one. A negro accidentally struck
one of his fellow workmen In the leg with
a pick and forced him to quit the Job
for a few days. That, though, is the only
accident so far."
For tho foundation of this new theater
building It was necessary to go but twenty
six feet below the level of the street.
Nearly every man who has watched the
work of excavation has declared the foun
dation was not being laid deep enough for
an eight-story building. Superintendent
Burnham says such talk Is foolish and
declares the foundation to be deep enough
to hold up a thirty-story sky rcraper.
"We put this foundation down but
twenty-six feict," explained Mr. Burnham,
"because the ground here In Omaha Is
polld and gives a firm base for a building.
The Brandels store building was allowed
to go down sixty feet below the street
level, but that was done 111 order to give
the store a large basement. In this build
ini we have Just gone down far enough
to get below the basement, which, In this
cise, is not to be nearly so deep as In
the first structure.
"I have been on Jobs In several cities
In the United states and I know what
depth is needed for a substantial building.
In Omaha It Is not necessary to go deeper
than twenty-five feet for a firm founda
tion. This one we have in the theater
would hold thirty stories or more.
"In New Orleans there Is a soft clay,
and It is necessary to go down many feet
and then to drive plllnir down about sixty
feet more to get a firm bottom. In Cin
cinnati there Is gravel In the earth, and
you can stop anywhere In the work. For
a foundation In Chicago a depth between
ninety-five and lis feet Is needed."
The actual work of getting ready for
laying the foundation for the theater
building was begun July 1, and by August
11 the building will be as high as the first
story. This does not mean that the floor
of the basement will be laid, but all the
foundation work will be done und the
walis of brick will stand completed up to
the beginning of the first story.
After that time Philip E. Ward, the fore-
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CONCRETE! MIXER AT WORK ON NOW BRANDEIS THEATER.
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MIXING MORTAR AND LATINO BRICK ON WEST WALL Off NEW BRANDEIS TttEATJJUL 1
