OCR Text |
Show American Boara Mission, Tehsien, Shantung, China. September 1st, 1920* I returnee: last evening from four days in the saddle making a circuit thru our field to ascertain the facts regarding famine conditions. I travelled 540 li ( 180 miles), maoe notes of crop conditions, and talked with people of various classes. Our field is m the east-central part of the famine area, which stretches from the Yellow River northward thru north-western Shantung, and southern Chihli practically all the way to Tientsin, and also incluaes a part of Shansi Province. The region affected is supposed to contain from ton to fifteen millions of people , and it is safe to estimate that o^e-V'f of this number will be in dire need. Besides a general upset of business conditions, which in itself works hardship on many, the croo failure affects^the masses chiefly in four ways: 1; lack of food, 2; lack of fuel, 3, en-forcoa sale of animals, anti 4) inability to support chiluren in school- LACK OF FOOD Fhile it is true that many people will ha^e money erouah with which to buy food e^n at the present inflated prices, yet at least half will ha^e neither money nor food to sustain life unless we help. A gooa ram in the southern half of our field on August 27th will help *ery materially with the late crops,- com,beans, cotton, and some millet,- and will make it possible to sow wheat for next spring, ^he northern half did not share in this rain, ana it is too late to be of much help to the fall crepe even if ram should come now. In the best sections in our field (comprising less than one-tenth of the entire area) there wall he perhaps cne-half a crop. The other sections ^ary from three-tehths of a crop to nothing at all.In three-fourths of the district this year's wheat crop was practically a total failurej some sections haa enough wheat to repay the seed^investment, some sections did not. Moreover, the hardship is not all due to this year's failure. In the Chiu Hh'eng region there were no crops on account of flood, and last year a scourge of grasshoppers destroyed the crop. Around Ling Fsien there was a half-crop last year, and one-tenth of a crop this year; near here a number of wells ha*« bad their sra11 anourf of water spoiled by having children pushed into them by parents ffho coal a no longer pro^iae for them, '"here there is kao-liang or mi1 lot, people are palling and eating it while haraly ripe. Those who can get alfalfa to eat are considered »ery fortunate. r'here this is not obtainable, -thi people are picking aao. eating elm ana apricot leaves Along with these, bean-cake and peanut-cake (left after oil extraction) form tho staple article if diet* This year's acute distress can be understood Inly in the light of these two facts- Impartial or total*crop failure ir certain sections for one,two,three, or four years past; anu2) the extreme poverty of the masses in o^er-crowded Shantung even in a year of gooa crops. LACK OF FUEL _ r The chief source of fuel for cooking ana heating is the crop of kao-liang stalks. This year with almost a total failure of the kao-liarip- crop there will be grpat uistress for lack of fuel. |