THE EDEX OF THE FLOWERY REPUBLIC 



371 



pumps, laboriously lifting into his ter- 

 raced fields the water that he has con- 

 served in the valley. Then, breaking up 

 the rice sod, which has been grown from 

 early sowing in highly fertilized plots, he 

 transplants it in hills in the watered 

 paddy fields. 



The roily water makes the hoeing of 

 his rice field impossible; so he does not 

 hoe it; he toes it. With bare foot he feels 

 about the plant with his toes, and if he 

 finds a weed, he toes it out ; then presses 

 the dirt firmly in place again. With his 

 right foot he toes two rows, with his left 

 foot he toes two rows, and thus he toes 

 four rows as he goes. That's the way 

 he hoes. 



Then come the tares, which the novice 

 cannot distinguish from the rice. Unlike 

 the Bible story, he does not leave them 

 till the harvest, but pulls them loose and 

 casts them upon the highway to be trod- 

 den under foot. 



For the harvest the farmers combine 

 and render mutual assistance. The rice 

 is cut with the sickle, gathered in bundles, 

 and the grain beaten out by striking it 

 upon slats in the center of a large bin 

 which is pulled along after the threshers. 



Dried upon bamboo mats, rolled and 

 cleaned, it is then ready to be transported 

 to market. 



The native's fondness for rice is pro- 

 verbial. Corn and wheat he regards as 

 poor substitutes, and sweet potatoes too 

 plebeian for any but the beggar to enjoy. 



the wonderful salt wells of 

 sze-chuan 



About midway between Chung-king and 

 Cheng-tu we are tempted by the long 

 trains of salt carriers to turn aside and 

 see the renowned salt industry at Tszliu- 

 ching, which means "Flowing Well." Its 

 origin is lost in antiquity, being first men- 

 tioned in the reign of the Minor Han 

 Dynasty in Sze-chuan, A. D. 221-263. 



With its forest of derricks, it resembles 

 an oil boom town. The wells have been 

 drilled by foot-power to a depth of 2.400 

 feet for brine and about 2,800 for natural 

 gas, which is used exclusively for the 

 evaporation of the brine. 



Salt is the unfailing source of govern- 

 ment revenue and its production is 

 guarded most jealously 10 prevent mon- 

 opoly. 



The proprietor of the salt well cannot 

 own a gas well or evaporating plant. 

 Likewise, the owner of the gas well or 

 evaporating pans cannot engage in the 

 other branches of the industry, thus mak- 

 ing each dependent upon the other and 

 preventing family or government control. 



There are no flowing wells now, the 

 brine being lifted in bamboo buckets 

 about 50 feet in length and four to five 

 inches in diameter. The power is sup- 

 plied by water-buffaloes, hitched in fours 

 to a 60- foot horizontal drum, about 

 which the rope fastened to the bucket 

 winds as the animals are beaten around 

 the circle at a wild gallop. The magni- 

 tude of the industry may be gleaned from 

 the fact that every family demands its 

 weekly pound of salt, and that many tons 

 are exported each month to other prov- 

 inces. 



THE "EMBROIDERED CITY" IX A FERTILE 

 PLAIN 



Returning once more to the Big Road 

 and passing without comment its towns 

 and cities, located about ten miles apart, 

 we come to Cheng-tu, the Perfect Capital, 

 a vice-regal city of half a million people, 

 ruling over Sze-chuan and Tibet. It is 

 surrounded by a finely constructed brick 

 wall, 35 to 40 feet in height, with a thick- 

 ness at the top of 20 feet and a circum- 

 ference of more than nine miles. 



Cheng-tu is an ancient capital, its first 

 recorded wall being built 2,315 years ago. 

 Marco Polo described it as a trinity of 

 cities beautifully embellished. Its ap- 

 proaches were carved marble bridges 

 which spanned its moat. Its Avail, nearly 

 20 miles in circumference, inclosing a 

 population of more than a million, was 

 surrounded by rows of hibiscus trees, 

 which in autumn bloom made it the "Em- 

 broidered City," a name that has long 

 outlived the wall and its trees. Some 

 conception of the toil required to erect 

 such a wall may be gained from the his- 

 torical records, which state that the con- 

 struction of one of its extensions, eight 

 miles in length, required an army of 

 100,000 men and 9.600,000 days'' work. 



Cheng-tu has given its name to the 

 plain on which it stands. 



This plain is said to have one of the 

 finest and most ancient systems of irriga- 

 tion in the world. It was perfected about 



