The Reconstruction Department of] the Kuantung Provincial Govern ment has established a Bureau of Agriculture and Forestry at Canton With the object of teaching farmers to grow better crops and increase the area of cultivated land, The Bureau is divided into eight Aivisions, which deal, respectively, with agronomy, horticulture, animal and veterinary "work, agricultural chemistry, rural econ-amy and agriculture extension, silviculture, forestry administration, All thes sing food production, thereby helping to make the province self-supporting About, 30 experienced agricultorall and silvicultural scientists have been employed by the Bureau to improve feed strains and livestock and to investigate the questions of manu: ing for higher production, the] scientific feeding of animals, the extermination of insect pests, and Among the other acti Bureau is the di cof weeds to farmers in the vic Canton, Under the supervision of the scientists the yield in certain fayens has thus been increased from three to four piculs a mow.
Irrigation work is also being! carried out near Tungshan, where more than 2,000 mow of land will be changed from rubble into fertile able territory. A ce-operative credit society will also be establish-an early date, which should) Assist the farmers in solving their financial difficulties.
'a promise that the ask the Hupeh Provincial Govern-tent te regard the properties of the old Hupeh Treasury, which are estimated to be worth $20,000,000 as the security for the large sum due to the merchants.
Another scheme which is announced for aiding the finances of the Hankow Municipality is to increase the tax on special merchandise from 28 per picul to $34. If the figures published in "New Hankow" are correct duty at the old rate was paid each month lately. on 7,000 picals <f opium as the revenue was $165, jolations of the Law on this enormous: be perpetrated with impunity, while the poor folks who are preparing to celebrate the Festival of All Souls next Sunday suddenly find themselves faced with proclamation that such superstitious practices are forbidden. One of the proclamations states that we have now reached the time when we must discard that which is based on falsifies and only follow practices based on the verities, While printing these n ces the Chinese press also records that the colony of Hunanese lumber hove Hanyang is going preparations and vanging with pt necessary masses regard this. festival ted.
the week-end an attempt to clean oat the bottom of an old well resulted in the death of three persons. The well is situated near the Chang-teng-tzu and the owner a leather-worker. For sonic time there has been no water in the well, and on Sunday the owner told one of his apprentices to put a ladder! down and increase the depth of the well by removing the accumulated mud. Having seen one or two loads brought to the surface no further attention was paid to the matter till the apprentice was needed, when it was found that he had been overcome by the emanations and was! lying at the bottom of the well. The! owner promptly descended the Indder and struggled to raise the youth but as was discovered later must have fallen back with hi burden and been overcome in turn, When a neighbour passing by noticed the ladder in the well and Icoked down the two were helpless, if not already dead. A party was formed and one man volunteered to down. A rope was tied under armpits and he took another rope to tie to the bodies. He must have stayed too long endeavouring to fix the rope round one of the odics for he collapsed. Those above immediately started to pull him up, but alas, the rope snapped and he fell to the bottom again. The three bodies were finally hauled out with hooks, but life was extinct.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.