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Mossel Bay, November 28th, 1859. Having been requested by the chairman of the Harbour Board to give my opinion on the capabilities of this bay as a harbour of refuge for distressed vessels, or for vessels bound round the Cape of Good Hope in the winter season, during the prevalance of westerly gales,-I beg to state that I consider it to be the safest open bay on this side of South Africa. I have had good opportunity to observe the effect of sea and wind upon vessels riding here, having myself been here as many as twenty times during the last four years, and I may venture to state in every month of the year.

With westerly or north-westerly winds a vessel is as safe as if in a dock; and even with S.E. winds I consider the danger is not so great of parting or driving as in other bays. I have rode out many S.E. breezes, and seldom let go my second anchor. As soon as I observe a Š.E. breeze is setting in, I give a long scope of cable, say sixty to eighty fathoms, and clap on my spring to the cable before windlass, then lash the other end of the spring to the stern and pay over same cable, so as to ride by the stern.

I mention this as I consider it to be a precaution which every one should take in all the bays on this coast. But, independent of the last observation made, I consider the danger is not so great as many persons are inclined to think it, as I have observed that there is what is termed an under-tow, which has a tendency to keep a vessel nearer to her anchor, and consequently to take the strain off the cables,-I mean with a S.E. sea. I do think that if this bay was better known, fewer accidents would occur. It is a well-known fact that Cape Agulhas is noted for being a Cape of Storms, and, off there, how many vessels are disabled or spring a leak, and thereby unable to contend against the heavy N.W. gales and accompanying sea. How easy it would be to gain a port of refuge by coasting along and slipping into Mossel Bay. When there and the anchor down lives and property are safe, and communication with shore always practicable. The bay is easily entered, and the anchorage soon gained, by rounding Cape St. Blaize at about the distance of a mile, standing boldly on to six or seven fathoms water, then tacking to the southward; she will then fetch a good anchorage, where it is almost an impossibility to drive or part. Accidents may occur by bad ground tackle or carelessness in dropping the anchor and fouling it, but not otherwise. There is likewise a port-captain and pilot always ready to render their services.

Now, respecting the S. W. winds and the effect they have on this,—it is a well-known fact that a S. W. wind sets in the most sea in every bay on this coast; but, fortunately, it comes into this bay from south-eastward, and, consequently, when the vessels are wind-rode (from S.W.) they lay rolling broadside to the sea, never bringing a strain on to their cables; and I have noticed that winds from a southerly direction do not blow home; and I account for that by the land being deeply indented between Ball Point and Cape Receif. I have frequently suggested the propriety of having a lighthouse erected on Cape St. Blaize. I think that that, combined with a proper survey and an Admiralty chart published, would cause the bay to be better known, and prove a blessing to many distressed vessels, and be the means of saving many lives and much property.

JOHN BURSTALL, Master of the Elizabeth Mary.

Mossel Bay, November 12th, 1859. Having been requested by the chairman of the Harbour Board to give my opinion on the merits of this bay as a harbour of refuge in westerly gales,from what I have seen of it during the week I have been here, I consider it a very safe bay in westerly gales.

Had I been acquainted with the safety of Mossel Bay, after my vessel sprung a leak, instead of trying to beat round Cape Agulhas to Table Bay, I

should have endeavoured to work my vessel into Mossel Bay. But from the chart of this coast, on which Mossel Bay appears as a place of no shelter, therefore I should not venture in.

If a lighthouse was placed on Cape St. Blaize, I am sure that many vessels, during the prevalence of westerly gales, would take shelter in Mossel Bay. Mossel Bay is open to the south-easterly winds, but in my opinion a ship might easily beat out to sea.

JAMES MURRAY, late Master bark Ann Bridson.

Testimonials of a similar character were furnished by Captain Duncan, of the Flower of Yarrow; Captain Staats, of the Theresa; Captain Armson, of the Therese, schooner; Captain De Groot, of the Ferdinande, brig; and various other masters who have visited the port.

[The important survey of the South coast of Africa by Mr. Skead, R.N., has not yet reached Mossel Bay.-ED.]

COTTON CULTURE IN CHINA.

In a recent number of the Friend of China, we find an extract from Fortune's work on China, giving an interesting account of the mode of growing cotton in that extensive empire. That paper states that the word cotton is derived from Kho-ten, the name of the most western district of China, and it must have been cultivated there centuries before it was known to the western world. We have no means of learning how much cotton is produced there, but probably more than is now produced in India, as its immense population is supplied mostly from home manufacture.

The Chinese or Nanking cotton-plant is the Gossypium herbaceum of botanists, and the Mie wha of the northern Chinese. It is a branching annual, growing from one to three or four feet in height, according to the richness of the soil, and flowering from August to October. The flowers are of a dingy yellow colour, and, like the Hibiscus or Malva, which belong to the same tribe, remain expanded only for a few hours, in which time they perform the part allotted to them by nature, and then shrivel up and soon decay. At this stage the seed-pod begins to swell rapidly, and, when ripe, the outer coating bursts and exposes the pure white cotton in which the seeds lie imbedded.

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The yellow cotton, from which the beautiful Nanking cloth is manufactured, is called Tze mie wha by the Chinese, and differs but slightly in its structure and general appearance from the kind just noticed. have often compared them in the cotton fields where they were growing, and, although the yellow variety has a more stunted habit than the other, it has no characters which constitute a distinct species. It is merely an accidental variety, and, although its seeds may generally produce the same kind, they doubtless frequently yield the white variety and vice versa. Hence specimens of the yellow cotton are freNO. 10.-VOL. XXX. 4 E

quently found growing amongst the white in the immediate vicinity of Shanghae; and again a few miles northward, in fields near the city of Poushun on the banks of the Yang-tze-kiang, where the yellow cotton abounds, I have often gathered specimens of the white variety.

The Nanking cotton is chiefly cultivated in the level ground around Shanghae, where it forms the staple summer production of the country. The district, which is part of the great plain of the Yang-tze-kiang, although flat, is several feet above the level of the water in the rivers and canals, and is consequently much better fitted for cotton cultivation than those flat rice districts in various parts of the country,-such, for example, as the plain of Ningpo,-where the ground is either wet and marshy, or liable at times to be completely overflowed. Some fields in this district are, of course, low and marshy, and these are cultivated with rice instead of cotton, and regularly flooded by the water-wheel during the period of growth. Although the cotton land is generally flat, so much so, indeed, that no hills can be seen from the tops of the houses in the city of Shanghae, it has nevertheless a pleasing and undulating appearance, and, taken as a whole, it is perhaps the most fertile and agricultural district in the world. The soil is a strong rich loam, capable of yielding immense crops year after year, although it receives but a small portion of manure.

The manure applied to the cotton lands of the Chinese is doubtless peculiarly well fitted for this kind of crop. It is obtained from the canals, ponds, and ditches which intersect the country in every direction, and consists of mud which has been formed partly by the decay of long grass, reeds, and succulent water-plants, and partly by the surface soil which has been washed down from the higher ground by the heavy rains. Every agricultural operation in China seems to be done with the greatest regularity, at certain stated times which experience has proved the best; and in nothing is this more apparent than in the manuring of the cotton lands. Early in April the agricultural labourers 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 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 ploughed up with the small buffalo plough in common use in the country and then broken and pulverised by the three pronged hoe; in those instances where the farms are small and cannot boast of a buffalo and plough, it is loosened and broken up entirely by manual labour. 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 pulverised, 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, how

ever, 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 generally 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, therefore, to have cotton on the wheat lands, the Chinese 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 vigour when it is more fully exposed to the influence of sun and air. The Shanghae season-that is, from the late spring frosts to those in Autumn-is barely long enough for the production and ripening of the cotton, as it is easily injured by frosts; 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 winter 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 preferred, 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 regularly over the surface of the ground, and then the labourers go over the whole surface with their feet and tread them carefully in. This not only imbeds the seeds, but also acts like a roller to break and pulverise the soil. Germination soon commences; 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 sown broadcast, is sown in drills or patches, but this mode is less common than the other. These patches are often manured with bruised oilcake, which is the remains of the cotton seed after its oil has been extracted. The rains, which always 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 changes 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 and kept from weeds. If the season is favourable, immense crops are obtained, owing to the fertility of the soil; but if the weather happens to be unusually dry from June to August, the crop receives a check which

it never entirely recovers, even although the ground after that period should be moistened by frequent showers. 1845 was a season of this kind, and the crop was a very deficient one compared with that of the previous year. The spring was highly favourable, and the plants looked well up to the month of June, when the dry weather set in, and gave them a check which they never recovered. Abundance of rain fell later in the season, but it was then too late, and only caused the plants to grow tall and run to leaf, without producing those secretions which ultimately go to the formation of flowers and seed.

The cotton plant produces its flowers in succession from August to the end of October, but sometimes, when the autumn is mild, blooms are produced 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 28th of October, when the thermometer sank 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 necessary 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 grandfather or great-grandfather, who has seen the crops of fourscore years gathered into his barns. Every member of these family groups has a certain degree 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 labourers are employed in addition to the farmer'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 favourites with the children, and often follow them to the cotton fields. Although 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 favourites the goats, with bags slung across their backs, receiving the deposits of cotton, and bearing it home to the houses, evidently aware that they too are working for the general good.

However fine the crop may be, the Chinese are never sure of it until it is actually gathered in. Much depends upon a dry autumn, for, if the weather is wet after the pods begin to burst, they drop amongst the muddy soil, and are consequently much injured, if not completely destroyed. When the cotton reaches the farmyards, it is daily spread out on hurdles raised about four feet from the ground, and fully exposed to the sun. As the object is to get rid of all the moisture, it is of course only put out in fine weather, and is always

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