23'4 AGRICULTURE

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23.4 AGRICULTURE

• The ancient Chinese farmers faced many
  difficulties, but the agriculture improved their
  lives by so many ways. Han farmers had to grow
  enough food to stock the shared granaries, the
  grain storehouses, and to feed their families.
  The farmers had one month where they werent paid
  and they had to make their own clothing and build
  their own houses too. The month where there was
  unpaid labor they were devoted to building canals
  and roads. This was hard labor but floods and
  droughts destroyed the crops, which gave the poor
  farmers more work. An invention called the chain
  pump that helped move water from low irrigation
  ditches and canals to fields. Ironwork was
  another great skill for the farmers. The Chinese
  were the first to poor melted iron into molds.
  They started making the plows stronger and
  better. The Chinese also invented the
  wheelbarrow. Everything was put in the
  wheelbarrow and it was easier to push something
  heavy than on their back. Chinese agriculture is
  used today still and it has made a big difference
  for everything.

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23.5 INDUSTRY

• The Han government handled two important
  industries salt and silk. Silk was extremely
  difficult to make and it took time. The Chinese
  developed a foot-powered machine that wound
  fibers onto a reel and then it was ready to use.
  Silk was very valuable to people outside of
  china. Silk trade started during the Han. Salt
  was very important trade. It helped preserve
  vegetables and meat. The Chinese Han Dynasty
  learned how to mine salt out of the underground.
  Chinese used iron tipped bamboo drills and dug
  deep wells, when they reached salt water a hollow
  bamboo pole is dropped into the well. Salt water
  would go inside the pole. The water would be
  placed in a pot and boiled and the water
  evaporates. This made it easy for the Chinese to
  get salt away from the sea.