AND THE ZOOLOGY OF CHINA 85 



the working-class, land-tax, and the rice crops were also 

 touched upon, but up to the present we have not been 

 sufficiently informed as to what kinds of rice are cultivated 

 in this district. 



This special question has a considerable interest, not 

 only from the scientific point of view, but principally on 

 account of rural economy and because only poor information on 

 this question exists in China, though more than half a hundred 

 kinds of rice are known to Chinese literature. The number 

 of the kinds of rice cultivated near Foochow is considerable 

 and the principal ones are — the common rice (the summer 

 and the winter rice), the glutinous, red rice and the upland 

 rice; and each one contains different forms, which are well 

 known to the Chinese farmer. 



In the environs of Foochow in the Min River valley two 

 crops of rice are obtained annually; in the mountains only 

 one, but it is not necessary to conclude that in the valleys 

 the rice fields are ploughed twice a year, and after the first 

 crop the next rice is planted. By two crops it is necessary 

 to understand that two rice plants set in Spring in one place 

 do not ripen at one time — the first is gathered about the end of 

 June and the middle of July, the other one about the middle of 

 October; and for that reason one is called the summer, the 

 other the winter rice. The best and the most valuable of all 

 local rice grains are the upland and the winter rice. The 

 summer rice is counted inferior in quality to the winter 

 rice, and the red rice is considered the poorest kind. The 

 glutinous rice is much valued by Chinese and is planted 

 near the town in small quantities. 



The poorest people of Foochow and neighbouring villages 

 feed chiefly on summer and winter rice, but on account of 

 the insufficient quantity of it the rice is cooked with the 

 dried sweet potatoes. The richer classes eat the winter and 

 the upland rice, and besides these the rice imported from other 

 parts of Fukien and Shanghai. The following 20 kinds are 

 the principal and the common kinds of rice cultivated near 

 Foochow. 

 Common Rice (Oryza sativa L.) 



Summer rice ■¥• 2fc. — Under this name the Chinese 

 understand several kinds of common rice, which are planted 

 in earlv spring and harvested in July. For its ripening it 

 takes 110 davs — 30 days to raise seedlings, and 80 days in 

 the rice fields, but one kind of summer rice needs only 90 

 davs for ripening, inclusive of the time of seedling. All the 

 existing sorts of summer rice are planted in April or m the 

 beginning of May, but always with the winter rice, lney 

 are planted across the range in such a way, that one range 



