AGRICULTURE OF THE CHINESE.-NO. 7. 
207 
The disease is known by great difficulty of 
breathing, attended with a cough, or hoose; the 
cow opens her mouth wide; the tongue is thrust 
out; the nose and mouth discharge a ropy slime; 
the eyes appear dull and heavy: the pulse hard; 
and she is unwilling to lie down. When moved, 
she appears uneasy, and in giving her drink, it 
seems as though she would he choked in attempt¬ 
ing to take it; she is also very costive; the ex¬ 
ternal surface of her skin feels cold, particularly 
on the legs, ears, and at the roots of the horns ; 
and, as the disease progresses, she becomes very 
restless and often is unmanageable. 
Bleeding, as in the preceding case, is the princi¬ 
pal remedy. The animal should be bled freely, 
and from a large orifice; as a timely bleeding will 
often do much to check the disease at its com¬ 
mencement. After this, the best practice is, to peg 
the cow in the dewlap with the following mixture ; 
Corrosive sublimate (bi-chloride of mercury), 1 
drachm; euphorbium, i drachm; hog’s lard, 1 oz. 
First, an incision is to be made in the dewlap; 
the skin is then to be separated from the flesh suf¬ 
ficiently to admit the quantity of medicine directed 
above, which must be introduced into the wound. 
As soon as the swelling or inflammation in the 
dewlap has taken place, relief will be given to the 
lungs, and the inflammation will begin to decrease. 
In the mean time, till this takes place, the bowels 
should be opened, by a dose of medicine prepared 
agreeably to the first formula given at p. 142 of 
the current volume. After this, an attempt should 
be made to open the pores of the skin, and to re¬ 
move the general contraction of the surface, by the 
following mixture made into a ball with fennu- 
greek powder and molasses :— 
Tartar emetic, 1| drachms; camphor, l! drachms; 
calomel, 6 grains : nitre, 1 oz. ; opium, f drachm. 
This medicine may be repeated twice a day till 
the skin is rendered free and perspirable, and the 
more alarming symptoms of the disease depart. 
The diet and other parts of the treatment, cor¬ 
respond precisely with those detailed in the treat¬ 
ment of inflammation of the brain. 
A Curious Fact in Butter Making. —Ac¬ 
cording to Professor Johnstone, the time and fre¬ 
quency of milking have a great influence on the 
amount of butter yielded by milk. If a cow be 
milked only once a day, he says, the milk will 
yield a seventh part more butter than an equal 
quantity of that which is obtained by two milkings 
in the day. When the milk is drawn three times 
a day, it is more abundant, but still less rich. It 
has also been remarked, that the morning’s milk 
is of better quality than that obtained in the eve- 
ning. 
Dimensions Necessary for Health in Living 
or Sleeping Apartments. —No living, sleeping, 
nor wmrking room should contain less than 140 
superficial feet at the bottom, nor should be less 
than eight feet high, with at least one window, 
opening at the top, and if possible, it should not be 
without an open fireplace, or an opening for ven¬ 
tilation near the floor. 
AGRICULTURE OF THE CHINESE.—No. 7. 
Cultivation of Cotton .—The Nanking cotton 
plant (Gossypium herbaceum), or “ Mie-wha” of the 
northern Chinese, 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 col¬ 
or, and, like those of the hibiscus, or malva, which 
belong to the same tribe, remain expanded only for a 
few hours, in which time they perform the part al¬ 
lotted to them by nature, and then shrivel up and 
soon decay. At this stage, the seed pod begins to 
swell rapidly, and wdien ripe, the outer coating 
bursts and exposes the pure white cotton in which 
the seeds lie imbedded. 
The yellow cotton, from which the beautiful Nan¬ 
king cloth is manufactured, is called “ Tze mi wha ” 
hy the Chinese, and differs but slightly in its struc¬ 
ture and general appearance from the kind just noti¬ 
ced. I have often compared them in the cotton 
fields where they were growing, and although the 
yellow variety has a more stunted habit than the 
other, it has no characters which constitute a dis¬ 
tinct species. It is merely an accidental variety, 
and although its seeds may generally produce the 
same kind, they doubtless frequently yield the 
white variety, and vice versa. Hence, specimens of 
the yellow cotton are frequently found growing 
amongst the white in the immediate vicinity of 
Shanghae; and again a few miles northward, in 
fields near the city of Poushan, on the banks of the 
Yang-tse-kiang, where the yellow cotton abounds. 
The Nanking cotton is chiefly cultivated in the 
level ground around Shanghae, where it forms the 
staple summer production of the country. This 
district, which is part of the great plain of the 
Yang-tse-kiang, although flat, is yet several feet 
above the level of the water in the rivers and canals 
and is consequently much better fitted for cotton 
cultivation than those flat rice districts in various 
parts of the country (such for example as the plain 
of Ning-po), where the ground is either wet and 
marshy, or liable at times, to be completely over¬ 
flowed. Some fields in this district are, of course, 
low and marshy, and these are cultivated with rice 
instead of cotton, and regularly flooded by the 
water wheel during the period of growth. Al¬ 
though the cotton land is generally flat, so much so, 
indeed, that no hills can be seen from the tops of 
the houses in the city of Shanghae, it has never¬ 
theless a pleasing and undulated appearance, and 
taken as a whole, it is perhaps the most fertile ag¬ 
ricultural district in the world. The soil is a strong 
rich loam, capable of yielding immense crops year 
after year, although it receives but a small portion 
of manure. 
The manure applied to the cotton lands of the 
Chinese, is doubtless peculiarly w T ell fitted for this 
kind of crop. It is obtained from the canals, ponds, 
and ditches which intersect the country in every 
direction, and consists of mud which has been 
formed partly by the decay of long grass, reeds, and 
succulent w r ater plants, and partly by the surface 
soil which has been ■washed down from the higher 
ground by the heavy rains. Every agricultural 
operation in China seems to be done with the great¬ 
est regularity, at certain stated times, which expe¬ 
rience has proved the best, and in nothing is this 
