Chap. XII. TIME AND METHOD OF SOWING. 
203 
neither of which can otherwise be done. The method of 
sowing one crop before the preceding one is ripe and 
removed from the land is very common in this part 
of the country ; and even in autumn, before the cotton- 
stalks are taken out of the ground, other seeds are fre- 
quently seen germinating and ready to take the place of 
the more tender crop. 
In the end of April and beginning of May — the land 
having been prepared in the manner just described — the 
cotton-seeds are carried in baskets to the fields, and the 
sowing commences. They are generally sown broad- 
cast, that is, scattered regularly over the surface of the 
ground, and then the labourers go over the whole 
surface with their feet and tread them carefully in. 
This not only imbeds the seeds, but also acts like 
a roller to break and pulverise the soil. Germination 
soon commences, the seeds rooting first in the manure 
which had been scattered over the surface of the land. 
In some cases the seed, instead of being sown broad- 
cast, is sown in drills or patches, but this mode is 
less common than the other. These patches are often 
manured with bruised oil-cake, which is the remains of 
the cotton-seed, after its oil has been extracted. The 
rains, which always fall copiously at the change of the 
monsoon, which takes place at this season of the year, 
warm and moisten the earth, and the seeds swell, and 
vegetation progresses with wonderful rapidity. Many of 
the operations in Chinese agriculture are regulated by 
the change of the monsoon. The farmer knows from 
experience, that when the winds, which have been 
