Page:Farmers of forty centuries.djvu/261

Rh used on the same shank. The mulch-producing blades may have a cutting edge thirteen inches long and a width of nine inches.

Fig. 132.—Method of using the broad, heavy hoe in producing surface mulch, as seen in Shantung, China.

At short intervals on either hand, along the two hundred and fifty miles of railway between Tsingtao and Tsinan, were observed many piles of earth compost distributed in the fields. One of these piles is seen in Fig. 133. They were sometimes on unplanted fields, in other cases they occurred among the growing crops soon to be harvested, or where another crop was to be planted between the rows of one already on the ground. Some of these piles were six feet high. All were built in cubical form with flat top and carefully plastered with a layer of earth