CHAPTER VIII 

 THE MORE IMPORTANT PLANT PRODUCTS 

 Cultivated Shrubs and Herbs of Economic Value 



CHINESE agriculture is mainly devoted to the production 

 of food-stuffs for local consumption, the surplus being 

 disposed of by sale and the proceeds invested in the 

 necessities or luxuries of life which cannot be produced locally. 

 Nevertheless, in the more fertile parts of the Empire, certain 

 economic crops other than those for culinary purposes are grown 

 expressly for sale or exchange. This is particularly true of the 

 rich province of Szechuan, where a number of such products 

 are produced, as will be seen from the brief account of the more 

 important which follows. 



Had this been written five years previously it would have 

 been necessary to give considerable space to the Opium Poppy, 

 but so vigorously has the edict for the suppression of this crop 

 been promulgated that only a brief notice of it is necessary. 

 When the Imperial Decree, prohibiting the cultivation and 

 consumption of opium throughout the Chinese Empire within 

 a period of ten years, was published on 20th September 1906, 

 I confess to having been one of those who considered it a fatuous 

 effort calculated to accomplish nothing, though well-meaning 

 enough. It seemed impossible that such a gigantic task could 

 be accomplished in such a brief period of time. Public senti- 

 ment was obviously in favour of the Decree, but to certain 

 provinces, for example Szechuan and Yunnan, the export of 

 opium represented their principal source of income. That 

 Indian opium could be dispensed with and none be incon- 

 venienced save the wealthy opium-smoking connoisseurs living 

 in the prosperous coast ports, was perfectly clear to any one 



who had travelled in Western China. In 1908 the area under 



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