236 
WANDERINGS IN CHINA. 
Chap. XIV. 
ticularly in Fokien ; while the sweet potatoes are better 
a little farther north, where they form the chief hill 
crop. 
The winter crops in the neighbourhood of Macao and 
Canton consist of large quantities of our European 
vegetables, such as potatoes, peas, onions, and cabbages, 
which are grown for the supply of the Europeans who 
reside at Hong-kong or Canton. Our potatoes are 
generally planted here in October, which is considered 
the best time to insure a good crop, but, as they always 
sell well in the markets, the growers manage to keep up 
a succession during the greater part of the year. Several 
varieties of the cabbage tribe, which seem indigenous to 
China, are grown extensively in the fields at this season 
both in the south and north. These never produce a 
solid heart like our cabbages, and are of no value when 
imported to England ; but the celebrated " Pak-tsae,'^ 
or white cabbage of Shan-tung and Peking, is a very 
different plant ; it is never grown in the south of China, 
but is produced in the summer months in the north. 
Large quantities of this delicious vegetable are brought 
south every autumn, in the junks which sail at the com- 
mencement of the north-east monsoon in October. 
In the northern provinces the principal winter pro- 
ductions are wheat, barley, peas, beans, the cabbage 
oil-plant, and various other vegetables of lesser note. 
These crops are grown on the hills as well as on the low 
lands, and on the ground which produces sweet potatoes 
in summer. In the Nanking district they are generally 
sown or planted in October upon those lands which 
produce rice or cotton during the summer months. 
