252 BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 



Otf.-FDsII-CULTlItE EN SOUTHERN CHINA. 



By CHARLES SEYMOUR. 



[Dispatch No. 96 to the State Department.] 



It must be borne in miud that the Chinese are not coinumuicative in 

 respect to any matter of business in which they are interested, and will 

 not knowingly impart any information that may, in the slightest degree, 

 be utilized by foreigners, or tend to induce or cause rivalry. In glean- 

 ing this information I have had assistance from a foreign gentleman, 

 who has held official relations to the Chinese during a residence of about 

 a quarter of a century in China, and has had access to sources of knowl- 

 edge regarding the various industries of this country to which a com- 

 parative stranger could not reach. Through him I have reached many 

 facts. 



In an old and populous country like China, the supply of food is a 

 question that demands serious attention, especially when the sub- 

 sistence of a human adult has to be restricted, among the masses, to 

 a cost of about $2 per month, or about G or 7 cents per day. Eice in 

 China is the staple article of food, as wheat and corn head the list 

 in America. Vegetables take the second place in the Chinese cuisine. 

 Fish stands next in the list of Chinese eatables ; and although the 

 poor and laboring masses are mainly restricted to rice and vegetables for 

 diet, enormous quantities offish are consumed; and to supply the demand 

 for fish there are in all the villages, and in the suburbs of the cities, 

 pools for fish-culture, and from these pools fish are scooped out to sup- 

 ply the markets and peddlers, for sale to and distribution among- con- 

 sumers, who never buy a fresh fish out of water. 



Enormous tubs containing water are daily filled with live fish tbat 

 are brought direct from the fish-pools in fish-boats, into and through 

 which by constant pumping fresh water is carried ; and those huge fish- 

 tubs carry thousands of fish to the Hong-Kong fishmarkets, by means 

 of the daily steamers. 



At all fish-stands in Canton and in the surrounding country fish are 

 thus sold alive, and the consumer makes his own choice. If a pur- 

 chaser wants only a portion of a fish, he is accommodated by having 

 one side of a fish cut off without getting any bone with the meat, and 

 as soon as a buyer is found for the other side 6f the fish the skeleton of 

 the fish is hung up to attract buyers who want a fish-soup or chowder. 

 In this way small buyers are enabled to get portions of fish weighing 

 from 2 to 10 pounds, and thus indulge themselves in a dish that cannot 

 be obtained every day by the poorest class. 



Fish, then, is in demand everywhere, and no one among the natives 

 seems to be indifferent to this article of food, although it must be 



