The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-02-14
COTTON GROWING IN
 CHINESE EMPIRE Methods of Culture In Northern
 Provinces
SOME SEED EXPERIMENTS
The Crop Is Ready To Begin Harvest ing Early In October andls Done In About Five Weeks.
 Other Facts.

Vice-Consul Ernest Vollmer, writing
 from Tsingtau, says that Shantung and
 the whole of north China proper grows
 much more cotton than is generally sup
 posed, the crop processes being thus de- scribed:
 The special cotton district of Shantuhg is north of Kaulni in what is known as the Hauli region. Many of the old maps
 show large shallow lake here and IL IS
 in the bed of this former body Of water that hundreds of acres of cotton are now found By careful system of drainage covering many decades, the natives nave divided the entifa lake off into series or ditches and high fields, made ot the
 earth removed from the ditches. By system of locks and gates they are also
 able to so regulate the moisture that a crop is almost certain regardless Of at mospheric conditions The seed Is planted in very carefully titled fields late In May, a kilo @ 1-5 pounds) of seed and some WO kilos of fertilizer being used for say No square meters q square meter-l.Do square yards) of land. After the plants are well up they are thinned out ana topped This causes the bushes to remain low and spread out. When they are De- ing topped another supply of rich bean
 meal fertilizer is added, and the fields are very carefully cultivated until after the plants have finished blooming.
 Early in October the crop begins to be ready for harvesting, the last cotton pe- ing picked about five weeks later. In order to separate the fibre and seeds a device consisting of 2 foot-power wheels is used. These wheels are arranged ike a clothes wringer and small teeth pull the fiber through, while the seed drops to the ground, being too large to pass between the rollers. The surplus seed is then ground to an oil, which the natives can not refine or clarify, however, hence It ls used only for crude lamps. The stalks Of the old plants naturally are used for tuei as is all waste vegetable matter in China
 The cotton, after passing through the na- tive ginning process, is by no means the fluffy batting the native desires, hence they have invented an affair which closely
 resembles a large violin bow. With the thong of this bow they beat the cotton until it is all separated and soft, being
 then ready for market.
 American Seed Experiments. Prices for both the cotton and the seed
 vary, but an average price may be said to be 20 to 90 small cash for a pound (which Is heavier than the American
 pound) of seed and 300 cash, or say about 10 to 12 1-2 cents for the cotton. The
 staple of this native product Is very
 coarse and short, and it is hence of little
 value for weaving, being used almost eX-
 clusively as wadding for the heavy winter garments and for comforters. Foreign imported cotton is used in manutactur- ing.
 Experiments on small scale with a few plants have recently been made with in the confines of Tsingtau. Of some o0O bushes only a few dozen produced, the
 cold weather apparently setting Tn before the crop had fihatured. All of the plants were healthy, grew well, and all had bolls. AS the cold set in rather early last fall, more extensive tests are to be made this year. As far as known this lot did not suffer from any disease or insect. American seed is stated to have been used in experiments covering several years along the line of the Shantung rail way. mainly near Ching Chou-fu- The results were not satisfactory The seed was planted early, grew very we'll. and
 the stalks were always loaded down with
 a heavy crop, which, however was an- nually checked by the first cold weather. The cotton of the American plant seem ingly takes longer to mature than that of the native cotton plants, and the sea son Is too short to allow the crop rom the imported seed time to mature. On the whole, it may be assumed that con sidering the poor staple and crude meth ods of ginning and cleaning the cot ton in vogue here there is at present
 little possibility of the industry extend
 ing far beyond it's present bounds The
 crop is, nevertheless, a profitable one Tor the Chinese farmer, and as the cotton wadded clothes are not likely to be su- perseded for a long time by any other form of dress the short staple cotton fills a demand, and will hence always be found in North China.
 Reduced crop of Burma.
 Consul-General William H. Michael, re- porting from Calcutta, says that the number of acres under cotton in Burma is now officially reported to 1S3,267. which is 3s66 less than the acreage of last year and 2774 acres less than the second fore cast The report states that the rainfall of the two months ending the middle of December has been disappointing. and the monsoon has given a short rainfall over the greater part of the cotton-produc- ing area Crop prospects are poor in two of the largest producing districts Sagaing and Myingyan-which are ex- pecting outturns considerably smaller than in 1sO6-7 The total estimated yield of c'ean cotton is 2s,6ss bales (400 pounds each), which is 6S9S bales less than in l906-7 and more than IS per cent below +bo ovara oa of,ffi,rn If the past five wears