AGRICULTURE OF THE CHINESE.-NO. 8. 
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AGRICULTURE OF THE CHINESE.—No. 8. 
Cultivation of the Mulberry .—On the 18th of 
May, I passed through an extensive silk district, 
where the natives were employed in feeding silk 
worms. The mulberry trees, from which they 
were fed, were all grafted and produce ver} fine, 
thick leaves. I obtained a plant, which is now 
alive in England, in order to determine the particu¬ 
lar variety, and whether it is different from the 
kinds which are used for the purpose in Europe. 
It is not yet, however, in a sufficiently advanced 
state for this to be ascertained. One thing, how¬ 
ever, is certain, that the silk produced in this dis¬ 
trict is considered as being amongst the first in 
China; hut whether this is owing to the particu¬ 
lar variety of mulberry tree used in feeding the 
worms, or to climate or soil, still remains to be de¬ 
termined. 
The trees, or rather bushes, are planted in rows, 
the hanks of the canals being a favorite situation ; 
and they are not allowed to grow more than from 
four to six feet in height. The natives set to work 
with a pair of strong scissors, and cut all the young 
shoots off close by the stump; they are then either 
stripped of their leaves, or taken home in bundles; 
and stripped afterwards. Before this operation takes 
place, the plants seem in a high state of health, 
producing vigorous shoots and fine large and thick 
shining leaves. After the leaves have been taken, 
off, the bushes look like a collection of dead stumps, 
and in the middle of summer have a curious win¬ 
try appearance ; but the rain, which falls copiously, 
and the fertility of the soil, soon revive a succulent 
plant like the mulberry. The Chinese seem very 
particular in stirring up the earth amongst the roots 
of the hushes immediately after the young branches 
and leaves have been taken off, and the plantations 
appear to have great attention paid to them. 
The farms are small, and are generally worked 
by the family and relatives of the farmer, who, 
not only plant, graft, and cultivate the mulberry, 
but also gather the leaves, feed the silk worms, and 
wind the silk off the cocoons. 
Management of the Silk Worms. — During my 
progress through the silk district, I visited a great 
number of cottages, where the worms were feeding. 
They are commonly kept in dark rooms, fitted up 
with shelves, placed one above another, from the 
ground to the roof of the house. The worms are 
kept and fed in round bamboo sieves, placed upon 
these shelves, so that any one of the sieves may be 
taken out and examined at pleasure. The poor 
natives were greatly surprised when they saw a 
foreigner coming amongst them, and generally sup¬ 
posed that I intended to rob them of their silk 
worms. In all the villages which I visited, they 
uniformly denied that they had any feeding rooms 
—although the leaves and stems of the mulberry 
about their doors told a different tale; and they 
never failed to direct me to go on to some other 
part of the country, where they assured me I 
should find them. Before we parted, however, 
they generally gained confidence, and showed me 
their collections of worms, as well as their mode of 
managing them. 
Cultivation af Indigo. —In the district of Kiang- 
soo, my attention was directed to a plant called 
Tein-ching ( Isatis indigotica)-, which is largely 
cultivated by the inhabitants for the sake of its 
blue dye. In the southern provinces a great deal of 
indigo (indigofera), is grown and manufactured, in 
addition to a large quantity which is annually im¬ 
ported from Manilla and the straits. In the north, 
however, the plant which we call indigo is never 
met with, owing, I suppose, to the coldness of the 
winters ; but its place is supplied by the Tein- 
ching, the leaves of which are prepared in the same 
manner as the common indigo. The color of the 
liquid, at first, is a kind of greenish blue, but after 
being well stirred up and exposed to the air, it be- 
becomes much darker. I suppose it is thickened 
afterwards by evaporation ; but this part of the 
process did not come under my observation. I am 
very much inclined to believe that this is the dye 
used to color the green teas which are manufac¬ 
tured in the north of China for the English and 
American markets. 
The Chinese Cabbage. — The oil plant ( Brassica 
chinensis ), is in seed and ready to be taken from 
the ground in the beginning of May. This plant 
is extensively grown in this part of China, both in 
the province of Chekiang and also in Kiangsoo, 
and there is a great demand for the oil which is 
pressed from its seeds. For the information of 
readers not acquainted with botany, I may state that 
this plant is a species of cabbage, producing flower 
stems three or four feet high, with yellow flowers, 
and long pods of seed like all the cabbage tribe. In 
April,’ when the fields are in bloom, the whole 
country seems tinged with gold, and the fragrance, 
which fills the air, particularly after an April 
shower, is delightful. 
Mode of Extracting Tallow from the Tallow Tree. 
— The seeds of the tallow tree ( Stillingia sebifera ), 
are picked at the commencement of the cold weathe?* 
in November and December, when all the leaves 
have fallen. This I saw at Singkong when out 
shooting in the Sah-hoo Valley, close by our quar¬ 
ters, through the village. The seeds are in the first 
place taken to the building where the process of 
making the tallow is carried on, and picked and 
separated from the stalks. They are then put into 
a wooden cylinder, open at the top, but with a per¬ 
forated bottom. This is placed over an iron ves¬ 
sel (about the same diameter or rather larger than 
the wooden cylinder, and about six or eight inches 
deep), containing water, by which means the seeds 
are well steamed, for the purpose of softening the 
tallow and causing it more readily to separate. 
The furnace I saw had four or five iron vessels in 
a row, was about three feet high, four or five feet 
broad, and eight or ten feet long. The fire was 
placed at one end and fed with the husks of the rice, 
dry grass, and such like cheap materials which, 
make a great flame, and the flue was of course car¬ 
ried directly under the whole of the iron ves¬ 
sels. 
When the seeds have steamed ten minutes or a 
quarter of an hour, they are thrown into a large 
stone mortar, and are gently beaten by two men 
with stone mallets for the purpose of detaching 
the tallow from the other parts of the seed. They 
are then thrown upon a sieve, heated over the fire, 
and sifted, by which process the tallow is separated, 
or nearly so, although they generally undergo the 
process of steaming, &c., a second time, that nothing 
