provinces.]
CHINA
639
pagation of the disease among the insects which is said by the natives to be the cause of the plentiful secretion of wax. This belief is borne out by the fact, that in the districts where the insects breed only a small quantity of wax is produced, and experience has therefore taught the natives the advantage of breeding the insects in one district and producing the wax in another. The region of Keen-chang in the south of the province has been found most suitable for breeding purposes, and it is there, therefore, on the insect trees, which are evergreens with large and pointed ovate leaves, that the breeding processes are carried on. At the end of April the producers start each with a load of the eggs of the insects for the district of Kea-ting Foo, a journey which on foot occupies about a fortnight. The road between the two districts is very mountainous, and as exposure to the heat of the sun would hatch the eggs too rapidly, the travellers journey only during the night. At Kea-ting Foo they are eagerly bought up, and are at once put upon the wax tree. Baron von Richthofen thus describes the subsequent process:—“When the egg balls are procured they are folded up, six or seven together, in a bag of palm leaf. These bags are suspended on the twigs of the trees. This is all the human labour required. After a few days the insects commence coming out. They spread as a brownish film over the twigs, but do not touch the leaves. The Chinese describe them as having neither shape, nor head, nor eyes, nor feet. It is known that the insect is a species of coccus. Gradually, while the insect is growing, the surface of the twigs becomes encrustated with a white substance; this is the wax. No care whatever is required. The insect has no enemy, and is not even touched by ants. In the latter half of August the twigs are cut off and boiled in water, when the wax rises to the surface. It is then melted and poured into deep pans. It cools down to a translucent and highly crystalline substance. Ten taels weight of eggs produce from two to three catties of wax.” Tobacco is another article which occupies a prominent place among the productions of Sze-chuen. It is grown very generally throughout the province, and is exported in large quantities to Se-fan, Tibet, Yun-nan, Hoo-nan; and the export to Han-kow alone is estimated at 50,000 piculs annually. The best is grown in the district of Pe Heen; the next quality is said to come from Kin-lang Heen,[1] and the third quality from She-fang Heen, all these districts being in the plain of Ching-too Foo. The habit, which is unknown in other provinces, of smoking the tobacco leaves rolled up in the shape of cigars obtains largely in Sze-chuen. Salt is also produced in Sze-chuen in large quantities from brine, which is raised from wells. Tsze-liu-tsing, in Tsze Chow, Woo-tung-keaou, near Kea-ting Foo, Paou-ning Foo, and Tung-chuen Foo, are the districts where the wells are most abundant. The brine is raised from the well with long bamboo tubes and bamboo ropes, and is then led to large pans for evaporation. In the district of Tsze-liu-tsing petroleum is struck at a depth of from 1800 to 2000 feet, and is used for evaporating the brine. Coal and iron are found in many parts of the province, but the only coal which is worked is of an inferior quality, and the iron is smelted with wood alone. Sugar, tung oil, wheat, barley, beans, rice, Indian corn, potatoes, &c., are among the other products of Sze-chuen. From the list of exports and re-exports from Han-kow in the Trade Returns for 1871, Baron von Richthofen has made a list of the proximate value of the exports of Sze-chuen in this direction.
Value in taels. | |||
| Sze-chuen Silk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . | 4,075 | 894,019 | |
| Safflower . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . | 4,837 | 294,795 | |
| White Wax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . | 10,765 | 647,029 | |
| Carry forward, | 1,835,843 | ||
Value in taels. | |||
| Brought forward, | 1,835,843 | ||
| Sze-chuen rhubarb . . . . . . . . . . . . . | 2,761 | 35,616 | |
| Musk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . | 14 | 58,629 | |
| Spelter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . | 1,913 | 7,435 | |
| Copper . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . | 515 | 21,658 | |
| Wood-oil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . | 290,441 | 1,825,701 | |
| Total, taels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . | 3,784,882 | ||
Ning-yuen Foo is the principal district from which the copper is produced, as much as from 500 to 600 tons a year being exported from this one prefecture. The mines are owned by private companies, who are bound by the terms of their licence to sell the metal at a fixed price (8 taels per picul) to certain holders of a Government concession, who on their part are bound to pay 2 taels per picul into the provincial treasury.
The province of Kwang-tung is bounded on the N. by Hoo-nan, Keang-se, and Fuh-keen, on the S. and E. by the sea, and on the W. by Kwang-se. It contains an area of 79,456 square miles, and is divided into nine prefectures; and the population is estimated at about 19,174,030. Its name, which, signifies “East of Kwang,” is derived, according to Chinese writers, from the fact of its being to the east of the old province of Hoo-kwang, in the same way that Kwang-se derives its name from its position to the west of Hoo-kwang. Kwang-tung extends for more than 600 miles from E. to W., and for about 420 from N. to S. It may be described as a hilly region, forming part as it does of the Nan Shan ranges. These mountains, speaking generally, trend in a north-east and south-westerly direction, and are divided by valleys of great fertility. The principal rivers of the province are the Se-keang, which has been already described; the Pih-keang, or North River, which rises in the mountains to the north of the province, and after a southerly course joins the Se-keang at San-shwuy Heen; the Tung-keang, or East River, which after flowing in a south-westerly direction from its source in the north-east of the province, empties itself into the estuary which separates the city of Canton from the sea; and the Han River, which runs a north and south course across the eastern portion of the province, taking its rise in the mountains on the western frontier of Fuh-keen, and emptying itself into the China Sea in the neighbourhood of Swatow. Kwang-tung is one of the most productive provinces of the empire. Its mineral wealth is very considerable, and the soil of the valleys and plains is extremely fertile. The principal article of export is silk, which is produced in the district forming the river delta, extending from Canton to Macao and having its apex at San-shwuy Heen. The value of the silk and of silken manufactures, especially textures which are annually exported from Canton in foreign bottoms, is estimated at about 14,000,000 dollars. Tea is also grown in many districts, and is exported annually to the amount of about 3,000,000 dollars; cassia lignea, together with cassia buds and twigs (from the sub-prefecture of Lo-ting, 150 miles east of Canton), matting, fire-crackers, sugar, and palm leaf fans, which are annually exported to the number of 4,000,000 or 5,000,000 to New York alone, are among the other prominent articles of merchandize. Sugar is grown on the banks of almost all the rivers, and 40 per cent. of the ground under cultivation in the districts of Pwan-yu, Tung-kwan, and Tsang-ching, is occupied by sugar plantations. Out of the total exports from Swatow during the year 1874, which amounted in value to £4,367,739, sugar was put down as representing £1,023,810. Three large coal-fields exist in the province, namely, the Shaou-chow Foo field in the north; the Hwa Heen field distant about 30 miles from Canton; and the west coast field, in the south-west. The last is by far the largest of the three, and extends over the districts of Woo-
- ↑ [A misspelling of Kin-tang Heen, as may be seen in Guetzlaff's China Opened, Vol. II, p. 533.]
