them as indispensable.

Time is a function of every life process as it is of every physical,
chemical and mental reaction. The husbandman is an industrial
biologist and as such is compelled to shape his operations so as to
conform with the time requirements of his crops. The oriental farmer
is a time economizer beyond all others. He utilizes the first and
last minute and all that are between. The foreigner accuses the
Chinaman of being always long on time, never in a fret, never in a
hurry. This is quite true and made possible for the reason that they
are a people who definitely set their faces toward the future and
lead time by the forelock. They have long realized that much time is
required to transform organic matter into forms available for plant
food and although they are the heaviest users in the world, the
largest portion of this organic matter is predigested with soil or
subsoil before it is applied to their fields, and at an enormous
cost of human time and labor, but it practically lengthens their
growing season and enables them to adopt a system of multiple
cropping which would not otherwise be possible. By planting in hills
and rows with intertillage it is very common to see three crops
growing upon the same field at one time, but in different stages of
maturity, one nearly ready to harvest one just coming up, and the
other at the stage when it is drawing most heavily upon the soil. By
such practice, with heavy fertilization, and by supplemental
irrigation when needful, the soil is made to do full duty throughout
the growing season.

Then, notwithstanding the enormous acreage of rice planted each year
in these countries, it is all set in hills and every spear is
transplanted. Doing this, they save in many ways except in the