China's Model Province in Sore Straits: The Ruin of the Prolonged Drought The following are the main points in a Jengthy appeal which has been circulated for the relief of the many famine sufferers in Shansi:—The Province of Shansi has an ayvea of about 81,000 sq. miles, with' a population of only 11,000,000 which is about 120 persons to the sq. mile, The country is very moun-famous and arid and unproductive.! Shansi, however, is said to be the! most peaceful and the most progressive province in China to-day. In the southwestern section of the province one-fifth of this population! are starving, and we are only just! entering on the famine days, The immediate cause of the pre- stances. sent famine is a continuous drought throughout the whole of 1922. The spring crop of wheat harvested in that yeart was about two-tenths of normal crop, while the autumn crop was also a failure—only three tenths of the normal harvest. The wheat planted in the autwnn of: 1922 for harvesting this spring amounts to only one-tenth of the area usually sown. The little that germinated is now dying away because there is not enough rain or snow to save. Other fields are left uncultivated. Grass is not growing anywhere, even the roots are drying, so that animal fodder is also short. No magic in the world can now bring food out of the ground until the middle of this year, and, should the drought not break, nothing can be planted for gathering tevex then. Meanwhile, suffering and hunger will increase.
This area went through a partial famine in 1920/21, and owing to the influx of famine stricken refugees flocking from other provinces, the people's reserves of grain were much asha Already the greater part of their, animals have been sold and driven off to more productive regions. is a! When the time comes to sow the Yuncheng, Shansi. grain it is dificult to imagine what method.f planting will have to be adopted, because there -pcople are too poor to own machinery. They are already feeding off the fodder reserved es ther arsenal, husk cakes and such like. Roots by making it into bran. es, millet
are being dug up for food, but this will not last, because the roots are also drying up.
During the past months, food pices have so soared, that today the cost of wheat is 400 per cent. over normal] figures. The price of bread (steamed bread is the ordinary food of the Shansi people) 1s now 400 per cent. of normal times. Fodder prices have also advanced at the same rate.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.