264 CHINESE COTTON CULTIVATION. [Cuar. XIV. 
CHAP. XIV. 
CHINESE COTTON CULTIVATION. — YELLOW COTTON. — DISTRICT 
WHERE IT GROWS. —COTTON COUNTRY DESCRIBED. — SOIL. 
—— MANURE, AND MODE OF APPLICATION. — PRECEDING CROPS. 
—TIME OF SOWING. — METHOD. — RAINS. — SUMMER CUL~ 
TIVATION. — EARLY RAIN ADVANTAGEOUS. — TIME OF REAPING 
AND GATHERING. — COTTON FARMERS AND THEIR FAMILIES. — 
DRYING AND CLEANING PROCESS DESCRIBED. — MARKETING. 
— INDEPENDENCE OF THE SELLER. — CROWDED STREETS IN 
SHANGHAE DURING THE COTTON SEASON. — WAREHOUSES AND 
PACKING. — HOME CONSUMPTION.— STALKS USED FOR FUEL. 
Tue Chinese or Nanking cotton plant is the Gossy- 
pium herbaceum of botanists, and the “ Mie wha” of 
the northern Chinese. It is a branching annual, 
growing from one to three or four feet in height, 
according to the richness of the soil, and flowering 
- from August to October. The flowers are of a 
dingy yellow colour, and, like the Hibiscus or 
Malva, which belong to the same tribe, remain ex- 
panded only for a few hours, in which time they 
perform the part allotted to them by nature, and 
then shrivel up and soon decay. At this stage the 
seed pod begins to swell rapidly, and when ripe, 
the outer coating bursts and exposes the pure 
white cotton in which the seeds lie imbedded. 
The yellow cotton, from which the beautiful 
Nanking cloth is manufactured, is called “ Tze mie 
