一八二三年至一八三三年间华亭—娄县地区水稻亩产量——一种新研究方法的尝试

Rice Yield Per Mu in the Huating-Louxian Area 1823-1833: An Experiment with a New Research Method

以往关于亩产量的研究方法存在较多弊端,影响了研究成果的可靠性。根据中国传统农学关于农业生产取决于"天"、"地"、"人"三大要素的经验总结,可以用一种新的方法对1823—1833年松江府华亭—娄县地区的水稻亩产量进行重新估计。新研究方法的主要内容是注意不同气候条件对一个地区水稻亩产量的影响,了解不同品质的耕地及其在该地区全部耕地中所占的比重,依据当时农学家对插秧密度与亩产量之间关系的总结得出不同气候条件下不同品质耕地的亩产量,在此基础上求得该地区全部耕地在特定时期的平均亩产量。运用这种方法研究的结果是:华亭—娄县地区在1823年以前,水稻平均亩产量大约为3石,而在1823—1833年期间则为1·7石左右,均与过去学界对该地水稻亩产量约2石的估计有颇大差异。

Methodological inadequacy has seriously affected the reliability of the existing research results. This study is an experiment with a new method, based on the empirical experience of China's traditional agriculture summed up in the saying that agricultural production depends on the three main factors of climate, land and man. This method is used to re-evaluate the rice yield per mu (about 666.67 square meters) in the Huating-Louxian area of Songjiang Prefecture (the present day Songjiang County of Shanghai) between 1823 and 1833. The main features of the new method include examining the effects of climate on rice yield, understanding the respective proportion of land of different qualities in the total farmland of the area, estimating the yield per mu for land of different qualities under varying climate conditions in a given period of time according to agronomists' observations about the relationship between crop density and per mu yield, and on this basis, calculating the average rice yield per mu of all farmland for a given period of time. The findings show that the average rice yield per mu in the Huating-Louxian area was around 3 dan (a dan equals 60 kilos) before 1823, and about 1.7 dan between 1823 and 1833. Both numbers are rather different from the previous estimation (2 dan).