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 CHAPTER X

Farmers—Farming and farm animals—Domestic industries—Products—Quality and character of food-stuffs

Koreans are an agricultural people, and most of the national industries are connected with agriculture. More than seventy per cent. of the population are farmers; the carpenter, the blacksmith, and the stonemason spring directly from this class, combining a knowledge of the forge or workshop with a life-long experience of husbandry. The schoolmaster is usually the son of a yeoman-farmer; the fisherman owns a small holding which his wife tills while he is fishing. The farming classes participate in certain industries of the country; the wives of the farmers raise the cotton, silk, linen, and grass-cloth of the nation, and they also convert the raw material into the finished fabrics. The sandals, mats, osier and wooden wares which figure so prominently in Korean households, are the work of the farming classes in their leisure moments. The officials, the yamen runners, the merchants, inn-keepers, miners, and junk-men are not of this order, but they are often closely connected with it. The Government exists on the revenue raised from agriculture; the people live upon the fruits of the soil; Korean officials govern whole communities given over to agricultural labour. The internal economy of the country