Excerpt from Cotton Cultivation in China, and Something About the Spinning and Weaving Mills: Being a Reprint of a Series of Articles That Appeared in "the North-China Daily News" (Shanghai) In September and October, 1916, Revised and Brought Down to Date Yet Shane-i cotton, which ranks as China's finest, is produced from American seed introduced by missionaries a few years ago, but even there, where it seems evident that the soil and climate are better suitable for the American plant than other districts, in three years the American cotton becomes almost identical with that grown from native seed. But, of course, no scientific attention is given to the crop. Kiangchow is the natural and financial centre of a very extensive cotton-growing district in Shansi, and in 1898 capital to the extent of some Tls. Or more was raised by the local Shansi officials, a fine site by the side of the Fen river was secured and buildings, chimney stack, etc., were erected. By the time of the Boxer rising part of the machinery was already on the ground and the buildings were approaching completion. Owing to the upheaval of 1900, loss of machinery in transit, changes of officials and other causes, the whole concern collapsed. The chimney stack, power house and the fine compound call forth from every passer-by a lament for the might-h'ave-been success of an enter prise in the heart of an' important district, already growing China's best cotton. Those interested in the improvement of Chinese cotton seem of opinion that the thing to do is to confine their experiments to the cotton already grown in China. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.