Narrative of the Circumnavigation of the Globe by the Austrian Frigate Novara Volume Ii Part 20

As to the ingredients of the dishes presented, we must frankly avow that by far the greater number were utterly unknown to us, for the Chinese cuisine, oddly enough, sets great store on making the materials unrecognizable, and altering their natural flavour by various recipes and culinary mysteries. According to the inquiries which we made of our carver, our host seemed so anxious to fulfil to the letter his promise to give us a real Chinese repast, that he had resolved on not sparing us a single one of the rarer dainties of Chinese epicures. Thus we not only had swallows' nests, lapwings' eggs, and steamed frogs, but also roasted silk-worms, shark-fins, stag and buffalo tendons, b.i.+.c.he-de-mar, bamboo roots, sea-weed, half-fledged chickens, and various other natural delicacies. The table was supplied at least three times with fresh delicacies, and we believe we do not exaggerate when we estimate the number of different dishes at not less than half a hundred. Meat of all sorts was at a discount, and was served up in small morsels ready carved;[157] on the other hand, rice and vegetables were presented in every imaginable form. During the meal one young girl, who had played a part in the dramas, was incessantly occupied with filling for each guest a very small cup with a warm beverage distilled from millet, thus carrying out the code of Chinese civility, that the cup should never be suffered to be empty, and therefore, that however little has once been drunk it must forthwith be replenished. Of the juice of the grape the Chinese make no use, although there are many districts in the country which are eminently adapted to the growth of the vine. All the native drinks consist of nothing but poor-flavoured, highly-perfumed drinks, chiefly distilled from millet and rice, and known by the general name of Samshoo, although this name is solely applicable to that obtained from rice, which somewhat resembles arrack. After the meal is over there are no spirits presented, but only tea, usually the common green tea, or else a tea prepared from almonds. The Chinese are, on the whole, a very temperate people, and even their pa.s.sion for smoking opium is rather a vice among the ma.s.ses of the coast provinces and the large towns, than of the interior of the kingdom.

During the banquet, as well as after it, there were further theatrical exhibitions, but the guests, who had been sufficiently wearied with the first of these, preferred to retire quietly to their own residences, and, seated in a rocking-chair on the delicious verandah, to recall all the peculiarities of the entertainment at which they had been present.

The rites of hospitality to strangers were not, however, limited in fulfilment to Ta-ki, since the various consuls settled at Shanghai, as well as several of the English, American, and German merchants, invited the members of the Expedition to dinner-parties given in their honour, each vying with the rest in refined courtesy. An especially pleasant memory attaches to one indication of this feeling, the spontaneous offering of a number of Germans to our commander and his a.s.sociates. We were sitting in the house of Mr. James Hogg, the Hanseatic Consul, when from the garden there suddenly arose a serenade of men's voices, singing German melodies. Surprised and deeply affected, the entire company rose from table and strolled into the garden, but the serenaders were concealed behind a group of trees, and as they withdrew, singing, the last cadence of a thrilling patriotic song was heard melting in the distance!

The Germans already const.i.tute a by no means inconsiderable portion of the foreign community of China, and it is painful to observe what slender encouragement and support their energy and industry have as yet met with from the various governments of Germany. The number of Bremen s.h.i.+ps which visited the harbour of Shanghai has of late years equalled that of the United States, and would be very greatly increased if the German mercantile community and the home-s.h.i.+ppers to the Chinese market could depend upon protection such as the English and French can rely upon. The German States, such, for instance, as the Hanseatic Towns, Prussia, Oldenburg, have indeed unsalaried Consuls here, but the shrewd, material Chinese people require something more than an empty intercession--they require to be convinced by an unmistakeable physical ability to back these representatives. Many a crying injustice, which the helpless German merchants and s.h.i.+p captains have to put up with without hope of redress in the various ports of China, would not and dare not occur if but a single German s.h.i.+p-of-war were stationed in Chinese waters. What the effect is, under similar circ.u.mstances, of even one single small boat was well ill.u.s.trated by Mr. Alc.o.c.k, formerly the English Consul at Shanghai,[158]

who with a small English brig blocked the mouth of the Yang-tse-kiang, and did not suffer one single "junk" of the many hundreds stationed in the river to put to sea under threat of firing into them until the Chinese Government had paid attention to his demands, and surrendered for trial by an English tribunal the murderers of an English missionary. The bare menace of closing the river sufficed to secure the Consul in his rights, and he speedily saw his various demands complied with. Only a month or two later a Bremen captain sustained such severe losses through the wilful act of the Chinese Government that he had to sell his s.h.i.+p, the energetic protest of his Consul to the native authorities meeting no other attention than an insulting chuckle over the powerlessness of the German empire.

In consequence of the Treaty of Pekin securing to Europeans the un.o.bstructed navigation of all ca.n.a.ls and rivers throughout the Celestial Empire, the trade with China is becoming so rapidly developed, that some remedy of this sort is imperatively needed,--if German commerce and industry would avoid receiving a serious check, if she would not be supplanted by other and more fortunate nations, in the endeavour to avail herself of the great alteration for the better in the facilities for trade in China.

The activity and energy of the English in opening up new outlets for their native manufactures were here astonis.h.i.+ngly visible. Hardly are the ratifications of peace exchanged, opening the most important rivers and harbours of the Empire to free commerce with the subjects of England, ere the country has been surveyed and explored in every direction. A number of English merchants ascended the Yang-tse-kiang as far as Hang-kow[159]

(mouth of trade), a city containing several millions of inhabitants, which, in consequence of its extraordinarily advantageous site, has already been described by Huc as the chief emporium of the 18 Provinces, and whence all the foreign trade radiates into the interior. Others undertook a land journey from Canton to Hang-kow; a third company ascended the Pei-ho and visited Tien-Tsin, while yet a fourth were contemplating the formidable undertaking of boating it up the Yang-tse-kiang from Shanghai to Hang-kow, whence they thought of penetrating via Thibet into British India.[160] Already information has been obtained from a variety of these excursions, which were undertaken specially in the interests of commerce, such as justify the most glowing expectations as to the trade with the Yang-tse-kiang and the Pei-ho.[161] Hang-kow promises to be a most important depot for the exportation of tea, while Tien-Tsin promises to be not less important as an entrepot for the importation of manufactures of every description. By the opening of these two additional harbours, Shanghai and Canton will fall off in their ratio of increase hitherto, but general commerce will on the whole receive a new impulse.

To the merchant and s.h.i.+pper, the latest intelligence from China as to the enormous development of commerce and trade at numerous spots of the Central Empire, hitherto undisturbed by European civilization, must be positively astounding. It is a rich mine of the most valuable material, which the _China Overland Trade Report_ and the _North China Herald_ presents to its readers, rendered doubly valuable through the influence of that Freedom of Speech, which makes every mercantile nation partic.i.p.ate in the very latest information as to these experiments and their results.

For, so far as concerns our present direct intercourse with China, a time must come, when more accurate notions will penetrate into even Austrian commercial circles as to the wants of a population, and the natural wealth of an empire, which embraces a superficial area of 3,000,000 square miles, with a population of 400,000,000 souls, and whose entire foreign commerce already amounts to 36,000,000, apart from the impulse which recent events must lend it.

Notwithstanding the immense variety of natural products of the Chinese Empire, the chief articles of export hitherto have been tea and silk, and we shall therefore confine our attention to a few important particulars as to those two articles.

The introduction of silk cultivation into China, one of the most ancient industrial pursuits of the Empire, is due, if we are to believe a native legend, to the consort of the Emperor Hw.a.n.g-te, who reigned B.C. 2640. The first mention of the mulberry tree and of silk occurs in the Schoo-kiu,[162] "the Book of exalted solid learning--the Book of Books,"

as it were, a collection of the most ancient historical annals of the Chinese Empire, which was compiled B.C. 484, by Confucius, from the memoranda of former writers of history, as well as from the information furnished by ancient monuments. Even empresses in those halcyon times did not deem it beneath their dignity to collect mulberry-leaves and feed the silk-worms, while various treatises were composed by imperial pens, respecting the cultivation of that most useful plant. The interest taken in silk-rearing by these the highest personages in the Empire, has remained unbroken to our own day, and quite recently a Chinese governor enriched the already copious literature upon this subject with a comprehensive work, written with the laudable object of stimulating the inhabitants of the silk-producing districts to a more extensive and improved system of silk cultivating.

The two best species of mulberry, those which are best adapted for the consumption of the worm, are: "Loo" (_Morus alba_), with long leaves, little fruit, and firm roots, which flourishes chiefly in North China, and "King" (_Morus nigra_), with narrow leaves, more abundant fruit, and altogether a hardier plant, which grows chiefly in the South.

According to old Chinese notions, there are eight different species of silk-worm, which spin their coc.o.o.ns at various periods[163] of the year between April and November.

The chief silk districts lie in the northern part of the province of Tsche-Kiang, and the princ.i.p.al silk marts are the following cities: Hoo-chow-foo, Hang-chow-foo, Keahing-fu, Nantsin, and Shoo-hing, which lie in a sort of semi-circle about 150 miles from Shanghai.

The silk is not grown in China by wealthy landed proprietors, and "thrown"

in huge establishments, but by millions of husbandmen, each of whom calls but a small patch of land his own, and plants it with mulberry trees, thus, like the bee, contributing his own share towards increasing the universal stock. During the season specially devoted to the silk-worm, old and young, lofty and lowly, throughout the silk districts, are busily and earnestly engaged night and day in tending the worms and winding off the silk. When the crop is being gathered in, the chief merchants send their agents to all parts of the chief silk districts, in order to collect and buy up these small quant.i.ties (varying greatly in value, as may be readily imagined), and depositing them in regularly a.s.signed warehouses, where they can be sorted according to quality. This done, the silk is packed in bales of 80 _catties_, or about 106 lbs. weight, and conveyed to Shanghai for sale, where it is once more subjected in each mercantile house to the examination of the special "silk Inspectors," or "Testers," after pa.s.sing through whose hands, it is sorted according to quality for s.h.i.+pment to Europe.

Three distinct qualities of raw silk are known in commerce, viz. Tsatli [Chinese character(s)], Taysam [Chinese character(s)] (the big worm), and Yuen-wha, or Yuen-fa [Chinese character(s)] (the flower of the garden).

These three leading descriptions are again subdivided into a great number of sorts, which are usually known by the name of the trader, or his "hong"

(business).

The annual production of silk in China is estimated to amount to from 200,000 to 250,000 bales, or from 20,000,000 to 25,000,000 pounds' weight.

This, however, is a very superficial estimate; that silk cultivation, however, must be enormously developed in China is obvious, not alone from the immense home consumption of the article, but also from the circ.u.mstance that, notwithstanding the immense increase in exports during the last ten years, the price of silk has not merely remained stationary, but is on an average absolutely less than at a period when barely one-fourth of the quant.i.ty now exported found its way to England and France. The price of silk is usually reckoned in Taels,[164] on the estimate of a bale averaging 100 lbs. English. Between Shanghai and London the bale loses on the average three per cent. in weight. There is also usually an allowance made of 15 per cent. for cost of transport and incidental charges from Shanghai to any English port.

On the average only one-fourth of the entire quant.i.ty of silk produced in China, or about 6,000,000 lbs., is exported annually, of which by far the largest quant.i.ty, perhaps as much as nine-tenths, goes to England and France. In 1843-44, the total export from all China was only 5100 bales.

In 1859, the export of raw silk from Shanghai alone was 75,652 bales!

Besides the raw silk there are annually exported from China a large quant.i.ty of silk-stuffs manufactured in China, c.r.a.pe shawls, &c. &c., to the value of from 400,000 to 500,000, the majority of which find a market in the United States.

The social condition of the Chinese silk-spinner is not less deplorable and poverty-stricken than that of the workmen of Europe, who are similarly engaged in the preparation of this costly article of luxury. As in Lyons, in Spitalfields, or among the Silesian Mountains, the Chinese silk-weaver lives and dies in the most abject misery, and the delicate and beautiful fabrics of his loom are produced in a wretched hut of such mean dimensions, that he is sometimes compelled to dig a hole in the soil in order to find room for the treadle. However, the Chinese weaver appears in so far better off than the same handicraftsman in Europe, that he has less to dread from the severity of the climate, and can purchase more food, even though his remuneration be smaller, than the weaver can possibly do in Europe, owing to the much higher price of even the commonest necessities of life.

The recent revolution in Chinese foreign relations will exercise a permanent influence on the silk culture of China, and, considering the exceedingly low rate of wages in that country, the time cannot be far distant, when one may purchase Chinese silk in Europe more cheaply than home-grown silk, when manufacturers will find it more profitable to purchase this most important raw material in China, than in Italy or the South of France. Acute business men in Hong-kong and Shanghai a.s.sured us that it only needed an impulse from without to increase the silk manufacture of China tenfold, and supply the annual demand for silk of the entire globe, which, if we are to believe encyclopedias and such like authorities, amounts to from 12,000,000 to 15,000,000 lbs. What makes Chinese silk especially suitable for the European market is its possessing in great perfection the two chief qualities of substance and colour, while, on the other hand, it is inferior to that of Europe in the fineness and glossy feel of its fibre. In Europe the silk is wound off from a limited number of coc.o.o.ns, whereas in China it is left to the discretion of the workman to spin it from few or many coc.o.o.ns as he pleases. Hence results that inequality and unevenness in the texture of the thread, a defect which cannot possibly be remedied by after-manipulation, and which accordingly completely prevents its employment in the manufacture of the more costly fabrics. This drawback, which is the main reason why Chinese silk does not rule the European market, will however admit of being remedied without any difficulty, so soon as the silk districts become more easily accessible, by the introduction of European labour and machinery, when this valuable and costly product will gain materially both in fineness and suitability.

Only a few years since German and Austrian merchants attached but a small value to Chinese silk as suited to our market, and it seemed to them a positive absurdity, when any one spoke, as we ourselves repeatedly have done from a profound conviction of its truth, of the future influence exercised over the silk markets of the world by the influence of this Chinese raw material. Now-a-days we hear that there is scarcely one single silk factory which can hold its ground, unless, in addition to French and Italian silk, it imports Chinese silk, while the demand for that material increases from year to year, and has very probably not yet attained the one-hundredth part of the development of which it is susceptible.

Tea (_Cha_[165]) ranks next to silk among the articles which have raised the trade with China to such an importance. The cultivation of the tea plant is of far later date than that of the mulberry tree, and its leaves, although used by the Chinese as a curative from the third century of our era, only came into general use, as providing a universal drink, towards the end of the sixth century.[166] Statesmen and poets sounded the praises of the new beverage, and while the one employed this excellent and beneficial gift of nature to fill the treasury by the imposition of a tax, the others chanted the praise of the plant in their hymns and songs, and thus, probably without intending it, contributed to increase the revenue of the Government.

"Tea," writes one of the older Chinese authors, "soothes the spirit, softens the heart, dispels languor, restores from fatigue, stimulates the intellect, and arouses from indolence; it makes the body lighter and more brisk, and quickens the faculty of observation."

The tea plant first attracted the attention of Chinese naturalists in Wu-yi, or, as the English term it, the Bohea[167] district, which enjoys to this day a great reputation for the exquisite quality which grows on its hills.

At present the cultivation of the tea plant extends northward as far as Tang-tschao, in the province of Shantung, southward as far as Canton and Kuang-si, and westward as far as the province of Yun-nan. As, moreover, the tea plant likewise abounds in j.a.pan, the Corea, and the Loo-Choo Islands, as also in Chusan, Tonquin, and Cochin China, we may a.s.sume that it flourishes over about 28 of lat.i.tude and 30 of longitude, within which it can be cultivated without being affected by severe alternations of temperature. That part of North China, however, which lies between 27 and 33 N., seems on the whole to furnish the finest sorts,[168] where the mean annual temperature ranges between 61.7 and 68, and in which fine weather with a rise of temperature follows upon a heavy rainfall; the latter being as necessary for the speedy and luxuriant growth of the leaves, as the former is for eliciting their fragrance and other valuable qualities.

To form an idea of the enormous amount of tea which is annually cultivated in China, it suffices to remark that, after deducting the immense quant.i.ty consumed, there are more than 70,000,000 lbs. exported annually.

It is not our intention to give a disquisition upon the cultivation and preparation of the tea, the drying (_poey_), roasting (_tschoo_), perfuming and colouring of the leaves, in short, the long tedious process to which this valuable article of commerce is subjected from its collection on the fertile green slopes of the bush-covered hills of Bohea, till its arrival at the port of s.h.i.+pment in a form suited for exportation.

We prefer here to confine our attention to a consideration of those experiments which have recently been made in China with respect to tea cultivation.

There are of the tea plant an almost endless variety of qualities, but only two species, viz. _Thea viridis_ (green tea), and _Thea Bohea_,[169]

and even these two have such few points of difference, that quite lately they were described by Fortune as one and the same species. Thus, too, it has been a.s.serted in our own day that the green and black varieties of tea sold in Europe do not, as is universally supposed, belong to two different species of tea, but that the difference of colour, shape of leaf, flavour, &c., is exclusively due to varieties in the mode of preparing them for the market, and that the manufacturer is able to make from the leaves every description, black or green, which is required in commerce. Thus in the celebrated tea district of Ning-tschan, where in former days black tea was exclusively grown, there is now procured green tea from the same species of plant, apparently because its cultivation pays better, while the quality remains in its olden repute.

The black tea, which const.i.tutes four-fifths of the entire export to England, is grown of a particularly fine quality in the district of Kien-ning-foo in the province of Fo-kien, and is known to commerce by a variety of names, chiefly derived from the localities in which it is grown, or those of their proprietors. On the other hand, the green sort selected for exportation is chiefly met with on the slopes of the chain of hills between Che-kiang and Ngan-hwui. Besides those descriptions actually prepared on the spot where they grow, there are also an immense variety of teas manufactured in Canton from all sorts of black and green tea. The tea-growers of Canton are reputed to colour their green teas artificially, by sprinkling them with a mixture of Prussian blue and pulverized chalk, after which they subject them to a rolling motion for a considerable time in heated copper pans.[170]

One most important element in tea cultivation is the method adopted to impart a certain bloom, an artificial fragrance, which it does not possess in the natural state. This process of "scenting," as it is called, which is practised exclusively for the foreign market, is termed by the Chinese _Hwa-hiang_. The flowers which are used for imparting this fragrance, and the growth of which, like the invisible fields of odoriferous herbs near Cannes, in the South of France, forms a most important branch of cultivation near Canton, are chiefly _Jasminum sambac_, _Jasminum paniculatum_, _Aglaia odorata_, _Olea fragrans_, _Sardenia florida_, orange-blossom, and roses. The method of "scenting" consists simply in placing a definite quant.i.ty of the flower-blossoms, varying according to the strength or feebleness of the odour, in juxtaposition with about 100 lbs. of dried tea-leaves, where they are suffered to remain from 24 to 48 hours. Thus 40 lbs. of orange-blossom, 50 lbs. of Jasmin, 100 lbs. of _Aglaia odorata_, are reckoned the equivalent respectively of 100 lbs. of tea-leaves. The extraordinary costliness of these fragrant blossoms[171]

has caused a very general suspicion to prevail, that the leaves thus "scented" are afterwards adulterated with large quant.i.ties of the common teas. And as it is an ascertained fact that 60 lbs. of such tea can impart a similar fragrance to 100 lbs. additional by merely mixing the two together, without any apparent diminution of fragrance, it seems more than probable that similar admixtures, very possibly in a still more profitable proportion, are being silently carried on every day in the warehouses of the tea districts.

Since the suppression of the East India Company's monopoly, and the opening of the Five Ports, tea has somewhat fallen in price, but has in consequence gained in far greater ratio in respect of quant.i.ty s.h.i.+pped.

The value of a picul of tea is at present about 18 or 20 taels (5 12_s._ 6_d._ to 6 5_s._), so that the pound costs 1_s._ 1_d._ to 1_s._ 2_d._ Notwithstanding the unexampled cheapness of hand labour (60 to 70 cash, or 2-1/2_d._ to 3_d._, per diem), it is not possible to procure _good tea_ below this limit, although the various descriptions vary extraordinarily in price according to their quality and the districts they come from. The lower cla.s.ses in the tea districts purchase for themselves the raw unprepared leaves just as they are plucked, for about 1_d._ per pound, and as it takes about 4 lbs. of the fresh leaves to make 1 lb. of dry leaves, it may be calculated that the tea, as drunk by this cla.s.s, must cost from 4_d._ to 5_d._ per lb. Moreover, it is customary to add some of the less costly descriptions, more especially in districts at some little distance where the tea plant is cultivated.

The first historical doc.u.ment referring to the introduction into England of tea as a beverage, is an Act of Parliament in the year 1660 (the year of the Restoration). At that period China tea cost sixty s.h.i.+llings the pound, which of course limited its use to a very narrow circle. At present there are 30,000,000 lbs. imported into England[172] annually, or more than one half of the entire export from the Central Empire, the consumer in London paying about 3_s._ per pound on the average.

Of late years attempts have been made to cultivate the tea plant at the foot of the Himalayas, in Java, and in the United States. In Hindustan, whither only a few years ago that well-known and enlightened gentleman, Mr. Robert Fortune, dispatched 24,000 plants, selected from among the finest tea districts, the experiment has already proved successful, and even remunerative. The cost of growing is about 10-1/2_d._ per lb. for one description, which fetches 2_s._ per lb. in the London market. That grown in Java has. .h.i.therto been viewed with disfavour in Europe, but in a few years more it must make its way. The result of the experiments in the United States we have yet to learn. Mr. Fortune, who was intrusted by the Patent Office at Was.h.i.+ngton with superintending the introduction of the tea cultivation into the Southern States, and who in virtue of many years'

scientific researches in China may be regarded as an authority upon this subject, is of opinion that the possibility of cultivating tea in the United States does not admit of a doubt, since the plant not only successfully resists frosts, but even, in a measure, benefits by them, it being a well-known fact that it flourishes better in the northern than the southern climates of China. It is questionable, however, whether its cultivation can prove remunerative in a country where labour is still so exceptionally high. Will the tea plant repay the immense cost of cultivation, and compete successfully with the product of China? The next few years will settle this question, if it be not choked by this unholy fratricidal war, which is raging within the freest and most glorious confederacy of modern times.

We enjoyed the good "fortune" while at Shanghai of becoming personally acquainted with Mr. Fortune, and of gathering these valuable particulars from the very lips of that distinguished naturalist and traveller. While reserving for consideration elsewhere the subject of various little known, but most important, articles of export from the vast Empire of China, we cannot refrain from indulging in a few remarks upon some useful products of that country, which seem to us of more than merely commercial importance. Among these we shall notice first one of the most valuable rewards bestowed by Nature on human industry, the so-called Chinese sugar-cane (_Sorghum_, or _Holcus saccharatus_), which deserves the earnest attention of all European proprietors of land, as it grows in its native country quite in the northern districts, in fact in lat.i.tudes where the ordinary cane (_Saccharum officinale_) no longer flourishes; because frost and cold are much more conducive to its growth than the opposite extreme, so that it would seem to be specially adapted for cultivation in Southern Europe.

The first attempt to cultivate this cane in Europe was made, if we are rightly informed, at the Hyeres islands by Count David de Beauregard, from seeds which M. de Montigny had sent home to the Geographical Society of Paris, while other attempts were made at the same time in various parts of France by the _Societe d' Acclimatisation_. The results surpa.s.sed the most sanguine expectations. From the stem there was obtained a juice from which sugar and alcohol, syrup and brandy, can be easily made. The abundant leaves, five or six feet long, furnished a considerable quant.i.ty of cattle with most nutritive food; the seeds were used as food for poultry, and were even subst.i.tuted with advantage for barley in the provender supplied to horses, so that the experiment at once repaid its cost, while in addition to the foregoing, the flour obtained from the seeds was found to furnish a highly nutritive, wholesome article of diet for man. Dr. Adrian Sicard, to whom the agricultural world is indebted for a very exhaustive a.n.a.lysis of the Chinese sugar-cane, has established, by conclusive researches, that its leaves are also specially adapted for the manufacture of paper, as well as for various colours or dye stuffs. As to the remunerative value of the _Sorgho_, it is more than 230 per cent. more productive than beet-root, which in France produces on the average 2160 kilogrammes per hectare, while the _Sorgho_ makes a return of 5000 kilogrammes.

The mode of cultivating this useful plant differs in no respect, as we repeatedly had occasion to observe, from that of maize or Indian corn. The season for sowing varies with the temperature of the country, between the months April and July. The seed when sown in the beginning of April will be ripe about the middle of August, or in 135 days, while that sown in mid-July will not be ripe before the end of November, or about 140 days.

In France the experiment has been made of bathing the seeds in tepid water for periods varying from 24 to 48 hours before sowing, which resulted in a much more speedy bringing forward of the plant. In like manner experiments were made of sowing the seeds with and without their husk, the result of which was that the former took 15 days, and the latter only 10 days to sprout. It is recommended to plant the seeds in furrows sufficiently separated from each other according to the conditions of soil and irrigation, so far as is possible.

The period of germination of the _Sorgho_ is rather long, but once that period is pa.s.sed, the most favourable results are sure to follow, even should the most unusual alternations of temperature ensue, provided the thermometer does not descend below 27.5 Fahr. The _Sorgho_ requires about five months to attain its full ripeness, when it is usually of a pale-yellow colour, streaked with red. It is occasionally subject to different maladies, some of which attack the root, others the pith. In like manner the larvae of certain noxious insects have been remarked on occasional specimens. But the origin of all these drawbacks has been as yet far too little inquired into, and they are of too rare occurrence to permit of any definite information respecting them being as yet available.

On the whole, the cultivation of the _Sorgho_ may be regarded as eminently successful in the South of France, as well as in Pennsylvania, U. S.

(which has a much severer climate than Venetia, Dalmatia, or the lower course of the Danube). Very probably we may also succeed in naturalizing the _Sorgho_ in suitable parts of Austria, and introducing there the cultivation on a commensurate scale[173] of a plant, which bids fair not merely to prove far more profitable in cultivation than any other member of the vegetable kingdom in any part of the earth, but at the same time seems destined at no distant period to be the means of supplying the civilized world with one of its most vitally necessary articles of food, by means of free white labour, without the a.s.sistance of slavery![174]

Another plant, which it seems likely might be advantageously introduced into the southern districts of Europe, is the _Mo-chok_, one of the most graceful kinds of bamboo found in the forests of China, which grows in greatest luxuriance on the limestone slopes of the province of Tschi-Kiang, in a climate ranging between 90.5 in summer, and 20.3 (Fahr.) in winter. The erect, smooth, elegant stem shoots up to a height of from 60 to 80 feet. The lower part of the tree is usually free from branches, which usually begin to spring from the trunk about 20 feet from the ground, and are very delicately leaved. These and two other species, the _Long-sin-chok_ and the _Hu-chok_, are used in the manufacture of sieves, baskets, furniture, &c., while the tender shoots form a most nutritious and delicately flavoured vegetable. The stem of the plant is moreover available for the manufacture of paper.[175]

Writing paper is manufactured from it as well as packing paper, and one very coa.r.s.e quality is mingled with the mortar by the Chinese masons. Mr.

Fortune has introduced the Mo-chok into China, where, especially in the north-west provinces, it promises to come on well upon the slopes of the Himalaya.

Of the other plants which grow in China, which are not indeed suited for transplanting to a colder climate, yet merit attention on account of their produce, we shall briefly notice the varnish tree, the tallow tree, and the wax shrub.

The varnish tree (_Vernix vernicia_), a sort of sumach, which grows in greatest luxuriance in the provinces of Kiang-si, Chi-kiang, and Szechuen, furnishes that varnish which, partly in a semi-fluid, partly in a dry state, comes to market in whitish cakes, and is worth, according to quality and demand, from 40 to 100 dollars per picul of 133 lbs. In the preparation of this lacquer, the reputation of which has extended over the globe, 6-2/3 lbs. varnish, 13-1/2 lbs. water, 41-2/3 lbs. nut-oil, 16-2/3 lbs. of pigs' gall, and 33-1/3 lbs. of vinegar, are mixed together till the whole a.s.sumes the consistence and appearance of a s.h.i.+ning black paste.

The fact that many Chinese lacquered wares, especially those prepared in Foo-chow, vie with the renowned manufactures of j.a.pan in beauty and l.u.s.tre, leaves room to suspect that the Chinese workmen have received some instruction from their j.a.panese fellow-craftsmen.