AGRICULTURE is the national industry and it gives occupation to six or seven millions of the people. The native methods are so primitive that ere long the production will be trebled by the modern system introduced by the Japanese. Three men at least are required to use a spade -- one to guide it by the handle, two others to raise it from the ground by ropes attached to a long blade, and the latter are sometimes increased to six or eight. Oxen are employed to drag ploughs (wooden with a removable iron shoe) as crude as those of early Mexico or Egypt. Rice and barley are threshed on a board, or with a flail, ad winnowed by throwing the grains into the air; then they are milled by pestles in a wooden mortar. The chief crops are rice, beans, pease, millet, wheat, barley, tobacco, cotton, castor-oil, potatoes, melons, and peppers. The people are inordinately fond of lettuce, and nearly every yard has a plot of it. Besides teaching the Koreans methods for the development of the land on scientific lines, the Japanese have established model farms, miniature cotton and tobacco plantations; horticultural, forestry, and seeding stations, and besides stocking the country with fresh seeds and new agricultural tools, they have taught the people how to breed and care for live-stock, and have quadrupled the yearly output of Korean silk. The country has been referred to as a 'natural orchard,' and experts are supplanting certain of the poorly developed fruits with American pears, grapes, apples, etc. The appearance of the Korean peasantry often tempts one to paraphrase Artemus Ward's remark about Spain, and agree with him that there would be more arable land if the people did not carry so much of it around on their persons!

Ginseng (Panax Schinseng), originally a wild Manchurian product, is one of the most valuable economic plants. Credulous Chinese ascribe almost miraculous curative powers to it, and ailing persons will sometimes pay $200 for a special root 3 or 4 in. long and weighing but a few ounces. The Chinese name jin-tsan (or jin-shen) is said to allude to the resemblance of the forked, carrot-like root to the legs of a man (jin). Panax (Greek, 'all-healing') expresses the Asiatic belief in its efficacy. The Japanese name, ninjin, is the word for carrot, and its high price is referred to in the proverb Ninjin kute kubi kukuru ('after ginseng, death by hanging') meaning, 'you will probably get well if you eat ginseng, but you will die of hunger afterward, for it will make you poor.' The manufactured product, red ginseng, whose only medicinal effect is that of a mild aromatic stimulant, is known to Chinese and Koreans as Hong-sam. The cultivated root is esteemed less highly than the wild (which grows in N. Korea and Manchuria), one kin of the former bringing only 45 taels in the Shanghai market, against 30 taels of the American product (Panax quinquefolius, the introduction of which broke the market and brought down the price), and 3 taels for the Japanese plant (which is cultivated in many of the provinces of Japan). Korean ginseng has always been highly esteemed at the Peking Court, and anciently it was included in the annual tribute. Its cultivation has long been a gov't monopoly, and is at present in charge of the Monopoly Bureau of the Chosen Gov't. The annual production is about 6000 lbs., the best quality bringing Y80 per lb. The plant is cultivated in ground which has not been used for ginseng culture for 7 yrs. The carefully fenced beds (of sand, leaf-mould, etc.) are about 18 in. wide and 24 high. When 2 yrs. old, the plant puts forth 2 leaves, and 2 yrs. later it has 4 leaves and is 6 in. high. It reaches maturity in the 6th-7th yr., up to which time it is tended with extreme care and is sheltered from the sun and wind by reed blinds stretched above or slanting at the side of the plots, and inclining slightly to the S. Hong-sam can be made only out of the roots of plants 5 yrs. old and upward. After being steamed and dried, the 'beards' and 'tails' are cut off, the trunks are classified according to size and quality and packed in neat baskets of 5 catties each.

Southern Korea is practically bare of trees, but the mts. of the N. and E. provinces contain splendid forests which cover wide areas; chief among the indigenous trees are silver-firs, many species of pine, oak, and maple; birch, juniper, mt. ash, hazel, lime, willow, alder, larch, chestnut, poplar, walnut, etc. Vast quantities of timber (chiefly larch, red-pine, and walnut) are felled annually in the Hyoi-san-chin Mt. (the center of the forest on the upper reaches of the Yalu) and rafted down to Shin-wiju -- the huge rafts constituting picturesque features of the Yalu River. From the several species of hornbeam found in the peninsula, the Koreans make mallets, handles, and agricultural implements. The Forestry Bureau is busily engaged in afforestation throughout the country (many stations), and among the thousands of trees planted yearly the splendid Cryptomeria japonica figures largely, along with the quick-growing acacias. Splendid groves of Spanish chestnuts are features of the upper reaches of the Han River. The Umbrella Pines are called Parasol Pines, because they resemble in shape the parasols carried over the King. Many of the gnarled, weird Japanese pines are seen, but not in such profusion as in Japan.

The FLORA is extensive and interesting, but not so varied or prolific as that of Japan. The plume and cherries bloom just as beautifully, and wild azaleas flame from the hill-slopes just as they do around Karuizawa and other places in the island Empire. The several varieties of clematis warm the hearts of travelers from New England, and the splendid rhododendrons impact a semi-tropic aspect to the land. In some places fragrant honeysuckle is as plentiful as at Nikkou. Travelers will not fail to note the omnipresent climbing ivy classified as Ampelopsis (of the family Vitaceae -- a near relation to the Japanese ivy ) and the many-flowered rose (a Japanese species, Rosa multiflora), which climb to the topmost points of the loftiest trees to flaunt their beauties wantonly in the face of the sun. Tiger-lilies, weigelas, gentians, peonies, marigolds, butter-cups, violets, white aconite, dandelions, asters, syringa, spiraea, pink iris, and many other old-fashioned flowers and flowering shrubs grow in profusion. In S. Korea plums put forth their pinkish-white blooms in late Jan., and peaches and cherries follow soon thereafter, albeit the displays are not so extensive as in Japan.