September i, 1881.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
277 
CHINA MATTING. 
(From the Gardeners' Chronicle, 16fch July 1881.) 
In a recent number of the Journal of the Society of 
Arts is a report by the United States Consul at Can- 
ton on the manufacture of matting in China. The 
substance of this report was contained in a paper by 
Dr. Hancc in the Journal of Botany, vol. viii., p. 99; 
but as the subject is one of much interest, and the 
paper of the American Consul is fuller in many of 
its details, wo make the following abstract :— 
It is well known that enormous quantities of mat- 
ting are now made both for use in China as well as 
for export. It is used largely for sails on the native 
Bailing craft, as it is much cheaper, if not moro 
durable, than the ordinary sail-cloth. It is also used 
for coverings for boxes and packages, in which tea, 
sugar, cassia, &c, arc exported ; besides which, money- 
bags are made from it, being a very convenient mode 
of handling dollars, especially when broken up into 
small pieces by their constant stamping or "chop- 
ping," as is the custom in China. 
The plant from which the mats are made is com- 
monly known as "aquatic grass," or "rush." It is 
cultivated in the Sbuihing department on the West 
River, about 75 miles in the interior from Canton. 
It is grown in a similar way to rice, in fields flooded 
with water. It requires very little care in its culti- 
vation, as it propagates itself by shoots from the 
root, and attains a height of from G to 8 feet. It 
is brought to market in bundles of about 12 inches 
in diamete r, and if of proper length and good quality 
sells at about lOd per bundle, each bundle being 
sufficient to make four bed mats, or six such as are 
usi'd for making sads. 
The district of Tung-Kuan produces large quantities 
of this material, but of a kind used almost entirely 
in the manufacture of floor-matting. It is said to 
grow better in the vicinity of salt water, when the 
watrr Hooding it is sometimes brackish. It is planted 
usually in the mouth of June, from slips. These are 
allowed to grow for about two mouthy, when they 
are replanted in rows, the soil being plentifully 
manured with beaneake ; it requires nearly a year to 
mature. When it is cut the steins arc split in two 
with a knife, and when partially dried in the sun 
packed in bundles, au'd manufactured into matting at 
the city of Tung-Kuan, or brought to Canton, where 
there are several extensive manufactories. When 
brought to the factory, the grass, as it is called, is 
oarefully sorted; it is then made into bundles of 2 
or 3 inches in diameter, and placed in large earthen- 
ware jars holding about 1(J gallons of water. It is 
tlun allowed to remain in soak foe three days, when 
it is taken out and dried in the sun for a clay. If 
it is to be dyed the ordinary red colour which has 
been fur years much in vogue, it is placed in jars 
containing a liquid dye made by soaking sapan-wood 
chips in water. It remains in these jars for five 
days, then dried for a day aft rwards, again im- 
mersed in the dye for three days, when it is usually 
Mady for use. 
It i< i.nly within the last two or three years that 
othor coburs, such ns green, yellow, and blue, have 
been used to any extent. The solution for colouring 
yellow is produced from the seeds and flowers of a 
plant oomuton to China, tho " Xruifa." A yellow 
colouring matfer is nis i made ly boiling for several 
hours "_'."> lb. of (lowers of Sophora japonica in 100 
gallons of water, and adding when co ded 1 lb. of 
alum to each 10 gallons of llio solution. Green and 
bin.' ar» produced from the twigs and leivos of tho 
" Ijimyip," or "blue plant," which grows in abund- 
anco near Canton. To the solution ihui produced a 
■Ball quantity of chemical dye is now added. In 
dyoing these colours the culms > r 'straw" as it is 
technically called, arc soaked iu water for seven 
70 
days, and then immersed in the colouring matter for 
a few hours only, the dye being hot. 
In relating a visit to one of the largest of these 
matting factories, fifty looms are described as being 
in full work, e ght of which were large and foriy-two 
small. The large ones are identical with tho oroinary 
silk looms, and are used in making the very wide, 
and also the damask or carpet patterns Three men 
are required to work each of the large looms, their 
wages being from Is 3d to Is 8d per day. Eight 
yards of matting from each loom is considered an 
average result of a day's work. The small looms 
are rude and simple, each being worked by two 
small boys, who are paid from 7d to lOd per day 
each, and who daily weave 5 yards of the most per- 
fect matting of the more ordinary patterns. The 
loom is composed of two uprights driven into the 
ground, about 5 feet apart, and about 4 feet in height; 
two cross-bars fit into sockets in the uprights, one at 
the top, the other about 8 inches from the ground. 
The warps, which are strings of Chinese hemp 2! 
yards in length, are then passed over the upper and 
round beneath the lower cross-bar, and being drawn 
taut are fastened by both ends to a long, thin piece 
of bamboo, placed parallel with and just below the 
lower cross-bar. The w-eaving-bar and the most im- 
portant part of the loom consists of a piece of wood 
varying in length according to the width of the mat- 
ting required, and about 2 inches square ; through 
this small holes are pierced at different intervals, 
into which the warps are parsed ; the bar can thus 
be worked up and down in the warps by means of 
handles near the extremities. These holes vaiy in 
distance from each other, according to the pattern 
desired, alternately on top and bottom. Tbe holes 
are enlarged or formed into slots, converging at the 
centre of the stick. When the warps have been thus 
arranged, and bundles of different coloured straw, 
sufficiently damp, deposited near the loom, one of 
the boys raises the weaving-bar to the top of the 
warps, tipping it forward, the slits in the bar allow- 
ing the alternate warps to remain perpendicular, the 
holes carrying the others forward, thus separating 
them sufficiently to admit of a single straw being 
passed between them. This is done by a long flat 
piece of bamboo, a notch being cut near the end, 
into which one end of the straw is placed and then 
used as a shuttle. 
When the bamboo is withdrawn the weaving-bar 
descends, carrying the straw to the bottom ; the bar 
is then raised again and tipped down, thus carrying 
the warps backward which had just before been 
passed forward, the work of the shuttle being repeated. 
As the weaving bar presses the straw down, the 
weaver gives the end of the straw a half turn rouud 
the outside warps, the operation being repeated until 
the warps are full, tho edges trimmed, the warps un- 
tied, tho matting, now 2 yards in length, removed, 
and a new set of warps put on. The matting thus 
woven is then dried in the sun and over a slow tire. 
The shrinkage consequent on this drying is near)) 4 
yards in forty. 
When dried, the matting is stretched on a frame 
and worked down tight by the hand, thin sent to 
the packing-bouse, whero men are engaged in fastcu- 
ii.g the 2 yards' lengths together, it requiring twenty 
lengths to make the ordinary roll. The fastening 
together is done by taking the projecting ends of the 
warns of uuo piece, and by means of a large bamboo 
needle passing them backwards and forwards through 
the ends of another pieet, in fact bin, bug them t . 
gather; each roll of 10 yards is thin orefullv co- 
vered with a coarse, plain straw mat, marked and 
numbered ready for shipment 
It would seem from Dr. fiance's pap. r tef i 
alluded to, that two distinct plants arc Died in the 
manufacture of the above-mentioned nuttings, the 
