In another field a man plowing and fertilizing for sweet potatoes had brought to the field and laid down in piles the finely pulverized dry compost.  The father was plowing; his son of sixteen years was following and scattering, from a basket, the pulverized dry compost in the bottom of the furrow.  The next furrow covered the fertilizer, four turned together forming a ridge upon which the potatoes were to be planted after a second and older son had smoothed and fitted the crest with a heavy hand rake.  The fertilizer was thus applied directly beneath the row, at the rate of 7400 pounds per acre, valued at $7.15, our currency, or $1.93 per ton.

We were astonished at the moist condition of the soil turned, which was such as to pack in the hand notwithstanding the extreme drought prevailing and the fact that standing water in the ground was more than eight feet below the surface.  The field had been without crop and cultivated.  To the question, “What yield of sweet potatoes do you expect from this piece of land?” he replied, “About 4000 catty,” which is 440 bushels of 56 pounds per acre.  The usual market price was stated to be $1.00, Mexican, per one hundred catty, making the gross value of the crop $79.49, gold, per acre.  His land was valued at $60, Mexican, per mow, or $154.80 per acre, gold.

My interpreter informed me that the average well-to-do farmers in this part of Shantung own from fifteen to twenty mow of land and this amount is quite ample to provide for eight people.  Such farmers usually keep two cows, two donkeys and eight or ten pigs.  The less well-to-do or small farmers own two to five mow and act as superintendents for the larger farmers.  Taking the largest holding, of twenty mow per family of eight people, as a basis, the density per square mile would be 1536 people, and an area of farm land equal to the state of Wisconsin would have 86,000,000 people; 21,500,000 cows; 21,500,000 donkeys and 86,000,000 swine.  These observations apply to one of the most productive sections of the province, but very large areas of land in the province are not cultivable and the last census showed the total population nearly one-half of this amount.  It is clear, therefore, that either very effective agricultural methods are practiced or else extreme economy is exercised.  Both are true.

On this day in the fields our interpreter procured his dinner at a farm house, bringing us four boiled eggs, for which he paid at the rate of 8.3 cents of our money, but his dinner was probably included in the price.  The next table gives the prices for some articles obtained by inquiry at the Tsingtao market, May 23rd, 1909, reduced to our currency.

Cents
Old potatoes, per lb                2.18
New potatoes, per lb                2.87
Salted turnip, per lb                .86
Onions, per lb                      4.10
Radishes, bunch of 10               1.29
String beans, per lb               11.46
Cucumbers, per lb                   5.78