208 
AGRICULTURE OF THE CHINESE.-NO. 7. 
more apparent than in the manuring of the cotton 
lands. Early in April, the agricultural laborers, all 
over the country, are seen busily employed in 
cleaning these ponds and ditches. The water is 
first of all partly drawn off, and then the mud is 
thrown up on the adjoining land to dry, where it 
remains for a few days until all the superfluous 
water is drained out of it, and is then conveyed 
away and spread over the cotton fields. Previous 
to this, the land has been prepared for its reception, 
having been either plowed up with the small buffalo 
low, in common use in the country, and then bro- 
en and pulverized by the three-pronged hoe, or, in 
those instances where the farms are small and can¬ 
not boast of a buffalo and plow, it is loosened and 
broken up entirely by manual labor. When the 
mud is first spread over the land, it is, of course, 
hard or cloggy, but the first showers soon mix it 
with the surface soil, and the whole becomes pul¬ 
verized, and it is then ready for the reception of the 
cotton seed. Road scrapings and burnt rubbish are 
saved up with care, and used for the same purpose 
and in the same manner. 
A considerable portion of the cotton lands either 
lie fallow during the winter months, or are planted 
with those crops which are ready for gathering 
prior to the sowing of the cotton seed. Frequently, 
however, two crops are found growing in the field 
at the same time. Wheat, for example, which is a 
winter crop, is reaped in the Shanghae district gen¬ 
erally about the end of . May, while the proper time 
for putting in the cotton seed is the beginning of 
that month or the end of April. In order, there¬ 
fore, to have cotton on the wheat lands, the Chi¬ 
nese sow its seeds at the usual time amongst the 
wheat, and when the latter is reaped, the former is 
several inches above ground, and ready to grow 
with vigor when it is more fully exposed to the in¬ 
fluence of sun and air. The Shanghae season ; 
that is, from the late spring frosts to those in au¬ 
tumn, is barely long enough for the production 
and ripening of the cotton, as it is easily injured by 
frost, and the Chinese farmer is thus obliged, in 
order to gain time and obtain two crops from his 
ground in one year, to sow its seeds before the wili¬ 
ter crop is ready to be removed from the ground. 
When it is possible to have the first crop entirely 
removed before the cotton is sown, it is much 
prefered, as the land can then be well worked and 
properly manured, 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 frequently 
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 broadcast; that is, scattered re¬ 
gularly over the surface of the ground, and then 
the laborers go over the whole surface with their 
feet and tread them carefully in. This not only em¬ 
beds the seeds, but also acts like a roller to break 
and pulverize the soil. Germination soon commen¬ 
ces, 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 sowm broad¬ 
cast, is sown in drills, or patches, but this mode is 
less common than the other. The rains, that al¬ 
ways 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 blowing from the north 
and east for the last seven months, change to the 
south and west, the atmosphere will be highly 
charged with electric fluid, and the, clouds will 
daily rain and refresh his crops. 
The cotton fields are carefully tended during the 
summer months. The plants are thinned where 
they have been sown too thickly, the earth is 
loosened amongst the roots, and the ground hoed 
aim kept free from weeds. If the season is favor¬ 
able, immense crops are obtained, owing to the fer¬ 
tility of the soil, but if the weather happens to be 
unusually dry from June to August, the crop re¬ 
ceives a check which it never entirely recovers, 
even although the ground, after that period, should 
be moistened by frequent showers. 
The cotton plant produces its flowers in succes¬ 
sion from August to the end of October, but some¬ 
times, when the autumn is mild, blooms are pro¬ 
duced even up to November, when the cold nights 
generally nip the buds, and prevent them from 
forming seed. In the autumn of 1844 , this 
happened on the night of the 28 th of October, when 
the thermometer sunk to the freezing point, and 
then ice was found on the sides of the canals and 
ponds. 
As the pods are bursting every day, it is neces¬ 
sary to have them gathered with great regularity, 
otherwise they fall upon the ground and the cotton 
gets dirty, which of course reduces its value in the 
market. Little bands of the Chinese are now seen 
in the afternoon, in every field, gathering the ripe 
cotton and carrying it home to the houses of the 
farmers. As the farms are generally small, they 
are worked almost entirely by the farmer and his 
family, consisting sometimes of three or even four 
generations, including the old grey-haired grand¬ 
father or great grand father, who has seen the crops 
of four-score years gathered into his barns. Every 
member of these family groups has a certain de¬ 
gree of interest in his employment; the harvest is 
their own, and the more productive it is, the greater 
number of comforts they will be able to afford. Of 
course there are many cotton farms of larger size, 
where laborers are employed in addition to the far¬ 
mer’s family, but by far the greater number are 
small and worked in the way I have just described. 
It is no unusual sight to see the family goats, too, 
doing their share of the work. Several of these 
animals are kept on almost every farm, where they 
are, of course, great favorites with the children, 
and often follow them to the cotton fields. Al¬ 
though the children with their little hands can 
gather the cotton as well as their elders, they are 
not strong enough to carry it about with them, 
and it is amusing to see their favorites, the goats, 
with bags slung across their backs, receiving the 
