A HUNTER OF PLANTS 



67 



PEACH PITS PROM THE WIED PEACH OF CHINA 



The wild peach of China is a species different from our cultivated peach. It grows on 

 dry lands and lives where there is too much alkali in the soil for our fruit. The fifteen 

 hundred pounds of nits shown in the photograph were imported into America, and there are 

 now orchards on alkali soil in California, the underground parts of which are Chinese roots 

 produced by these seeds. 



stems heavily plastered with mud and 

 with vertical paper windows on the south 

 side only. They are heated by flues, and 

 to keep the air moist large open vessels 

 filled with water are placed at short dis- 

 tances from one another. 



"In the forcing houses, also, large open 

 vessels are kept filled with liquid night- 

 soil, so as to promote a healthy growth. 

 That the atmosphere in these places is 

 far from being pleasantly odorous, one 

 may imagine. To my amazement I saw 

 forced cucumber plants with nice cucum- 

 bers hanging on them. If a young cucum- 

 ber shows a tendency toward being 

 crooked, the Chinese simply hang a piece 

 of stone, tied to a string, on it and force 

 it in that way to be straight. If we could 

 only do this thing to crooked people, too ! 



CUCUMBERS AT 50 CENTS EACH IN CHINA 



"I asked the price of these cucumbers 

 and was told 50 cents apiece (Mexican). 

 So this proves that Chinamen can afford 



to pay much for these luxuries. They 

 do not grow their cucumbers in benches 

 like we do, but have a few plants in a 

 pot, first in a little soil, and when the 

 plants get older more earth is added. 



"They also had fine Pseonias, which 

 were forced into bloom in the ground 

 above the flues, and when in bloom they 

 were planted in pots. They sell for 50 

 cents per bloom. They certainly looked 

 fine. 



"A totally novel industry was the forc- 

 ing of onion sprouts. There was one 

 house just chuck-full of these. The tem- 

 perature inside was about 90 F., and I 

 ate my lunch there and was treated to 

 onion sprouts, tea, and forced young 

 leaves of the 'tree of heaven.' 



"Eight coolies, half naked, were work- 

 ing among the plants and a furnace was 

 burning. The scent of the onions and 

 the odors from vessels with certain liq- 

 uids referred to, together with the heat, 

 the novel food, and the change of tern- 



