CHAPTER XVI
A KASHGAR FARMER
La latitude assez basse du Turkestan chinois combinée avec son altitude considérable, la sécheresse de son atmosphère et ses saisons nettement tranchées rendent le pays propre à des cultures très diverses, à celles qui se contentent d’un climat tempéré comme à celles qui exigent des chaleurs fortes et prolongées; mais excluent les plantes qui craignent les froids hivernaux ou réclament une grande humidité.—Grenard, La Haute Asie, ii. 173.
The cultivator, who is the backbone of Chinese Turkestan, depends entirely on irrigated crops, as there is no regular rainfall in the country. Rain, termed the “mercy of Allah” in Persia, is considered to be the opposite in Kashgar, partly because of the utter irregularity of its incidence. If there be a heavy fall in the spring, the soil cakes and the young plants cannot force their way through, and this necessitates a fresh sowing. Rain at harvest time, or when the melons ripen, is equally unwelcome, and when there is a heavy rainfall the farmer exclaims, “What great crime has been committed that we suffer such a calamity?” Snow is regarded with less disfavour. As a rule there is plenty of water for every one in the Kashgar oasis, and fights for it occur only in the spring, when each cultivator wishes to water his land first, in order to secure an early crop for the market.
Owing to the abundance of water and the absence of hail-storms or other serious climatic drawbacks, agriculture, except for rust and blight, which are seldom experienced, is a certainty, in complete contrast to the reputation it bears in countries that depend on the rainfall for their crops. The life of the oasis, where every acre is cultivated and where the agricultural population is comparatively dense, is quite unlike that of Persia, where each village is surrounded by square miles of uncultivated land, which furnishes grazing, fodder and fuel. There are a few isolated villages, or groups of villages, in Chinese Turkestan, but the country generally consists of extensive oases set in a lifeless desert.
The chief crops are millet, rice, maize, wheat, barley, cotton, lucerne clover, hemp, linseed, turnips, carrots and tobacco. Millet and rice are regarded as the best-paying crops, the former occupying one-half of the total area cultivated.
Of fruits and vegetables, apricots, grapes, peaches, nectarines, quinces, cherries, figs, apples, pears, mulberries, pomegranates and melons grow in great profusion, and pumpkins, which are the staple vegetable, are supplemented by carrots, turnips, onions, cucumbers, garlic and fennel.
The upper classes are less civilized than in Persia, partly because they do not mix socially with the European colonies; good fruit trees and seeds have therefore not been introduced. This state of affairs reflects little credit on the merchants from Andijan, who could easily introduce the magnificent fruit trees which are now grown at Tashkent.
The Chinese of the New City farm much better than the native Moslems, and have introduced the curious plum-cherry, with its blue, white and red varieties of fruit, beans of various kinds, beetroot, cabbages, including kohl rabi, lettuces, potatoes, tomatoes and spinach; but there is little contact between the Chinese and Moslem farmers, so that the latter do not learn much from the efficient Celestials.
The trees in the Kashgar Oasis, other than fruit trees, include the Lombardy and the spreading poplar, the latter growing to a great size, and the Turkestan elm, of which a grafted species grows in a pyramidal shape. The common willow and the Babylonian willow of two species—one with an edible fruit resembling the Bohemian olive—are planted along every irrigation channel and serve as fuel.
Next to agriculture the most important industry is the raising of live-stock—horses, donkeys, camels, cattle, sheep and goats. The horses bred by the Kalmucks around Karashahr are the best, being stronger than the Kirghiz ponies, because the Kalmucks do not drink mare’s milk. They are usually geldings, standing about fourteen hands, and are ideal for transport purposes. The Kirghiz pony is hardy and enduring, but not strong or up to much weight. The Yarkandi, especially a roan, was a favourite mount in India in the last century, and is mentioned in Anglo-Indian novels of the period; it is still exported in small numbers.
A LOAD OF CLOVER FROM ISA HAJI’S FARM.
Page 302.
Donkeys are found in thousands and take the place of the wheelbarrow and the cart in England, besides carrying the bulk of the internal trade. Camels, of the two-humped or Bactrian species, are highly esteemed, especially by the Kirghiz, as they are not affected by cold or deep snow, and can cross rivers that ponies have to swim. Cattle-breeding is carried on mainly in the mountains and in the wooded tracts along the courses of the rivers. The animals are small, and are bred for milk and for ploughing. Sheep are usually of the fat-tailed species, but in the southern districts there is also a short-haired breed. All animals, as a rule, are miserably thin owing to the almost entire absence of grazing.
I think it may be useful to select a typical farmer and study his life closely; for by this means we shall get down to the bed-rock of definite fact, which is preferable to vague generalizations about agriculture. Isa Haji, the subject of this sketch, was a farmer, aged 75, who lived not far from the city wall. Helped by two of his five sons, aged 18 and 16 respectively, he farmed 40 mows, or about six acres of land, which is the average size of a farm close to Kashgar. Here the manure obtained from the city enables the whole of the land to be cultivated at once, whereas farther off, where little manure is available, the farms are larger because a part of the land must always be allowed to lie fallow. One half of the Haji’s land was devoted to lucerne clover, the remainder being sown with millet, wheat, rice, cotton, melons and linseed. As a rule only one crop a year was taken off the land; but millet, carrots and turnips were sown after the wheat crop; in this case the millet did not ripen, but was valuable as green forage; the clover was cut four times in the year. In one corner of the farm were willow trees, which were pollarded every four years to serve as fuel for the owners. Isa Haji, being an old man, merely assisted in watering the fields, while his sons did all the ploughing, harvesting and threshing. His two eldest sons kept a grain-shop in Russian Turkestan, the third was a bricklayer, and the others, when not at work on the farm, earned sixpence a day as labourers. The Haji owned a yoke of plough-oxen and four donkeys, the former being fed on cotton-seed and the latter on millet. His agricultural implements included a primitive plough, a harrow, mattocks of two sizes, sickles, zambils or hurdles for carrying earth, a stone roller for threshing rice and a shovel for winnowing. Manure, consisting of horse and cow droppings, night soil and ashes, was bought in the city at the rate of threepence per donkey load, and used freely on the land, which was a rich alluvial loam; the frequent storms also deposited layers of dust which were regarded as good for the crops.
The house, which Isa Haji owned and had built room by room as he could afford it, at a total cost (including the land) of £50, covered a square of sixty feet. The guest-room, in which he lived during the summer and in which the meals were cooked and served, was about twenty feet square and was lighted by a hole in the roof. A mud platform covered with felts, on which the family slept, occupied a prominent position, and the chief piece of furniture was a carved box, which held clothes and served as a bedstead. Above it was a shelf full of Russian teapots. Off this room opened the store-room, in which grain was kept for winter consumption and which served as the living-room in winter. There was also a courtyard partly roofed in with matting during the summer, in which grew a shady tree, and this was the chief working room of the wife and daughters-in-law at that season. Here we noticed a cradle, a spinning-wheel and various pans. Two small rooms belonged to two unmarried sons, and the rest of the square contained stabling, an oven and a store for dry fodder.
THE SONS OF ISA HAJI PLOUGHING.
Page 304.
The home was managed by the wife and her three daughters-in-law, who cooked the food, looked after the children and made the clothes. They did not work in the fields, but spun the cotton into yarn, which they wove into the rough white calico of which most of the clothing of the poorer classes is fashioned.
The staple food of the family was bread made from millet, a grain that is held to be more sustaining than wheat or rice. Isa Haji’s large family consumed all his share of the crops, except the lucerne and some of the melons, turnips, carrots and linseed, which were sold. The oil of the linseed was used for cooking and lighting.
The chief meal of these peasant-farmers was eaten at sunset and consisted of suyukash, a soup prepared from pieces of paste-like macaroni and vegetables boiled in water. In the morning they took tea with cream and salt, and fruit and bread were eaten at odd hours. Meat, generally beef, appeared on their table only once a week. There was plenty of this rude fare, supplemented by slices of pumpkin eaten hot and by other delicacies; and Isa Haji’s sons appeared healthy, their teeth being noticeably fine and sound. They said that they suffered a good deal from lack of warmth in the winter, as charcoal was dear and had to be used sparingly. They placed a bowl of lighted charcoal under a wooden frame, over which a quilt was thrown, and the family sat by day and slept by night under this covering, with their feet towards the centre.
Isa Haji had been the tenant of the farm for more than ten years. It included three small properties belonging to three Kashgar merchants. Two-thirds of the lucerne, amounting in value to about five pounds, and one half of the other crops, were paid over as rent. He had no security of tenure, and could be turned out at will, but the prospect of this appeared to him unlikely, and he expressed satisfaction with his lot.
The farm paid revenue to the extent of 105 lbs. of wheat, a similar quantity of millet and 2100 lbs. of chopped straw, Isa Haji and his landlords each paying one half of the whole. There had also to be met the demand of the Chinese authorities for forced labour on public works and transport, but this was compounded for in money and might come to the equivalent of two shillings per annum. Nothing was paid for the use of irrigation water, and the taxation represented less than 5 per cent of the two main crops. In the case of villages situated at some distance from the city double this amount may be taken by the tax collectors, who are more exacting in proportion to their distance from headquarters.
To sum up, we have an oasis in which agriculture is not affected by the rainfall, but depends entirely on the rivers. The peasants have enough to eat, a good climate and neighbours in abundance. There are few parts of the world where the people are so contented, and, although discontent might perhaps bring an improvement of their lot, it is pleasant to see such cheerful, friendly tillers of the soil leading a healthy agricultural life, and to meet them returning home at night singing their tuneful songs:
How happy he who crowns in shades like these
A youth of labour with an age of ease;
Who quits a world where strong temptations try,
And, since ’tis hard to combat, learns to fly.