Page:Village life in Korea (1911).djvu/147

 CHAPTER XIII.

The Village Farmer.

Our village farmer belongs to a very large and withal a very respectable class. Korea is preëminently a farming country. The large majority of those who work at all are engaged, at least part of the time, in farming. Many who do some little business in trade or in manufacture of some sort find it to their best interest to return to the farm for the summer months and see to it that a crop of rice is grown.

As has been before stated, the people nearly all live in villages; and those who are farmers cultivate the lands surrounding their village, sometimes out to a distance of a mile or two. The land is held by individuals, and sold or passed on to posterity as the case may be. This refers to the land that is considered valuable for farming. The mountains and hills belong to the government, and are controlled by men known as hill masters. Any one wishing to cultivate any of the hills or mountains must make arrangements with the hill master and pay a small tax to the government. The principal value of these hills and mountains is that they furnish fuel in abundance and timber for all, purposes.

Rice is the principal crop of the country. Some will doubtless think this a strange statement when they remember that I have already stated that the country is very mountainous and very cold in winter. Most Rh