324 [Assembly 



AGRICULTURE OF SHANGHAI. 



Mr. Foitime, the interestiag traveller in the East, speaks of it 

 thus: 



" Without a doubt, the plain of Shanghai is the richest part of 

 all China, and perhaps its fertility has no equal on the globe. It 

 may be said to be one beautiful, grand garden. The soil is a very 

 deep, rich loam, producing wheat, barley, rice, cotton, a great 

 quantity of vegetables of all sorts, cabbage, turnip, carrot, yam, 

 egg plant (aubergines) cucumbers, &c., &c. It is the grand cen- 

 tre of product of the Nankin cotton. 



The Moutan Pccony^ or Tree Pceony 

 Is said in China to have been discovered growing in the moun- 

 tains of Honan fourteen hundred years ago. On being cultivated 

 it became very superior to its original wild condition. It was, 

 however, for a long time unknown. About the middle of the 

 seventh century it became a subject of entliusiastic culture. The 

 missionaries of that day relate that one of the trees, over twenty- 

 five feet high, was presented to the Emperor, It was called 

 King of Flowers, and the Hundred Ounces of Gold, as that sum 

 had been given for a single plant. 



The Nankin cotton of China does not differ in the general form 

 or growth from the white cotton, and, indeed, sometimes the seeds 

 of it yield white cotton, and sometimes we see in the field white 

 cotton and yellow or Nankin. The Chinese find the best manure 

 for cotton to be the mud of the ponds, canals and ditches, formed 

 of the decomposed plants, reeds, sedge, &c. They begin in April 

 to get out this mud; they let off the water wherever they can, 

 get out the mud and lay it in heaps on the banks. After letting 

 it drain a few days they spread it on the field for cotton. They 

 pulverize the soil first with the plough, drawn by bufialoes, then 

 work it all over with their three-pointed hoe until the soil is per- 

 fectly worked. The mud is, at first, not very friable, but rains 

 soon dissolve it and carry it into the soil in some measure. 



They use the scrapings of their roads, and they burn brush 

 and weeds for manure. 



