147 
McClintock, for many years a missionary on the Island of 
Hainan, (China), has kindly sent me samples of the two best 
varieties grown in that region. These are: Ciam Tsai 
and Ai Mian ( )• 
This list seems to include the best rices grown in China. For 
the data, I am indebted to a number of persons, among whom 
should be mentioned Mr. S. T.' Dunn, Botanist in charge of the 
Botanical Gardens at Hongkong, who has made exhaustive 
studies of the rices of southern China; to Mr. Wo Fung Shop at 
Hongkong; and to Mr. T. Tong, in charge of the party of Chin- 
ese students recently sent to America by the Chinese Govern- 
ment, who as a fellow-passenger on my homeward journey, kind- 
ly went over my notes, correcting the Chinese names where neces- 
sary. 
The cultural methods of rice production are similar to those 
followed in Hawaii. Two crops per annum are grown, except 
on the river deltas, where the spring floods frequently carry away 
the first crop. Seed is sown in nursery-beds, for the spring crop 
from March 1st to 20th, and for the second or fall crop, from 
June 1st to 10th. The seedlings are transplanted from April 
20th to May 5th for the first crop, and for the second, from July 
23rd to August 7th. The average age of the seedlings for spring 
plantings is about thirty days and for fall planting about forty 
days, at which ages the seedlings will average twelve to eighteen 
inches in height. Three to six seedlings are set in a clump, 
the clumps being spaced nine inches apart, in rows nine inches 
apart. The fields are flooded immediately after planting, to a 
depth of two to three inches in the spring, an inch less in the 
fall (except where irrigation is less under control, when the 
plants may be completely submerged, or the fields parched for 
want of water). The average time from planting to harvest, for 
the spring crop, is 115 days, and for the fall crop about 125 
days. The longer period of growth in the fall crop is due to 
varietal differences and not to season. 
Considering that many rice fields have been under cultivation 
for probably thousands of years, I became especially interested 
in the methods used to maintain and improve the fertility of the 
soil. A summarizing of the average yields of paddy gave the 
following results, which I believe to be reliable : Best yields, 
4000 to 4500 pounds, medium yields 2000 to 2500 pounds, poorest 
yields 1000 to 1500 pounds of paddy per acre. From this it will 
be seen that these soils are not lacking in productivity. These 
yields at least equal, if they do not exceed, those secured in Ha- 
waii, and on lands in many cases originally less fertile than ours. 
To discover how such results have been obtained continuously 
from remote periods to the present was to be a fascinating study. 
There seemed to be something magical about it. But, after all, 
the matter is very simple, — so simple that we in Hawaii have 
