The extraordinary thing is how little some of these factors changed over Chinese history. In 1909, the American soil scientist and agronomist Franklin King made a nine-month tour of the Far East, with a longer stay in Shandong. There he looked closely at the lives of what he called the ‘Farmers of Forty Centuries’. Among the farmers he interviewed was one man with a family of twelve that included parents, his wife and children along with a working donkey, a cow and two pigs. He farmed 2½ acres, where he grew wheat, millet, sweet potatoes and beans. Another holding of 1⅔ acres supported a
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