Chap. XII. 
CHINESE COTTON CULTIVATION. 
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CHAPTER XII. 
Chinese Cotton Cultivation — Yellow Cotton — District where it 
grows — Cotton Country described — Soil — Manure, and mode 
of Application — Preceding Crops — Time of Sowing — Method 
— Eains — Summer Cultivation — 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. 
The Chinese or Nanking cotton-plant is the Gossyjnum > 
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 expanded 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 wha " by the | 
