Page:The international development of China (IA developmentchina00suny).pdf/97

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DEVELOPMENT OF CHINA
69

a sum of $120,000,000 could be netted. Besides this direct profit to the Government, there is an area of some 17,000 square miles of occasionally flooded land which would be made flood-proof so that normally we shall have two crops a year instead of two only in five years. That is to say, the 17,000 square miles or 10,880,000 acres will be made to produce five times more than at present. For instance, if the value of the gross production be estimated at fifty dollars an acre, then the total value would be $544,000,000 Mex, and five times this sum would amount to $2,720,000,000 Mex. What an enormous profit to the country!

c. The Kiangnan Waterway System

This system comprises the South Grand Canal, the Whangpoo, the Taihu, and its connections. The most important improvement I intend to make here is to widen and deepen the Wuhu-lhsing Waterway between the Yangtze and the Taihu, and from there to dredge a deep channel right through the Taihu to a point midway of the Grand Canal between Suchow and Kashing. At Kashing, divide it into two branches:one following the Kashing Sunkiang Canal to Whangpoo, and the other, to the Projected Port at Chapu. This waterway between the Yangtze and the Whangpoo, before it reaches Shanghai, should be made as wide and deep as possible so as to make it carry sufficient water to flush the Shanghai harbor as well as to provide a shorter passage for inland water vessels be-