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 40 centuries. But she has cut down many of her forests and the familiar landscape of China has the sharply beau­tiful outline of grassy hills or rocky mountains. The climate varies, and, depending on where you are, you will find much the same changes as you will in America. On the whole the north is dry and desertlike, and the south damp and tropical.

Farmers do not live on isolated farms—they live in villages. Most of the villages belong to a single family or clan. The houses are earth-walled and straw-thatched in the north and brick and tiled in the southern part of the country. The general plan of Chinese houses is much the same, however, one story and with one or more courts.

Fields are large in the north and farming extensive. They are small and farmed intensively in the south. The Chinese have maintained the fertility of their farming land

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