1102 
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 
Photo by Rollin T. Chamberlin 
NATIVE MODE OF TRAVEL: NOTE THE IRRIGATING CANAL FROM THE MIN RIVER 
Cotton, sugar-cane, tobacco, madder, 
oranges, and persimmons are also raised. 
But the favorite crop during our visit in 
March and April was clearly the rape, 
or yellow mustard. It is raised in vast 
quantities for the oil which it yields. In 
early April, when the rape is in full 
bloom, its brilliant yellow flowers, grow- 
ing on all sides in the greatest profusion 
as far as the eye can see, give the im- 
pression of soil culture developed to its 
maximum. The only land which is not 
pushed to the limit of high culture is that 
occupied by graves. As everywhere else 
in China, the graves cover very consider- 
able areas. 
Fields of poppy are now only to be 
seen here and there in those districts 
where the magistrates are somewhat lax 
in enforcing the laws. Since the use of 
opium and the growth of the poppy were 
prohibited by imperial edict, the poppy 
has nearly disappeared from the Chinese 
landscape. Only a few years ago it is 
said to have been very extensively culti- 
vated, but now China is making a deter- 
mined effort to rid herself of the opium 
Curse. 
PEOPLE ABOUND EVERYWHERE 
As it is one of the most productive, so 
the Chengtu plain is one of the most 
densely populated tracts on the face of 
the globe. Save the ground occupied by 
the graves, no land is allowed to go to 
waste. The farms are crowded in so 
densely and are so assiduously worked 
that the fields look more like garden plots 
than open country farms. Because of 
the luxuriance of the crops, land is said 
to be worth approximately twice as much 
as in most other parts of agricultural 
Szechuan. 
People abound everywhere; they are 
