grapes. The number and variety o f young trees and
shrubs was very considerable, and included pears, apples,
walnuts, peaches, and sundry other fruit-trees, besides
large numbers of karagatch. The hard timber of this
last, when well seasoned, possesses enduring qualities
that are highly esteemed. Some of it also was growing
in the form of well-cut hedges. Other trees were the
thorny acacia, and among poplars a silver species with
a light-green smooth bark. I noticed, too, raspberry
canes, artichokes, cabbages, cauliflowers, cucumbers
four spans long, and a plant resembling a large turnip
with cabbage-leaves coming out of the bulb. The
products of this nursery are highly esteemed by the
natives, and are distributed as far as Kopal.
Besides this, I should mention that cotton has been
successfully grown in the valley of the Borokhudzir
river. It was introduced in 1867 by Chinese emigrants,
who considered the clayey soil of the valley, and the
long, dry, hot summer, with a short snowless winter,
as fairly good for cotton culture.* In the years 1868-9
an attempt was made at growing cotton at Borokhudzir
* The soil is prepared as for sowing com, the ploughed land being
formed into regular beds, not more than seven feet square, and surrounded
by small clay dykes to preserve the seed from the dampness of
the canals. Theb ed sa re then inundated from
for about three days. When the surface is quite dry, little furrows are
made in the beds with the finger ; into these the seed is dropped and
1- U+Ur r n v e r e d with earth. Two weeks after sowing, the plants come
,„p J d if not frostbitten, the stems grow rapidly to the height of two
feet A rainy summer or immoderate watering spoils the cotton, but in
tee middle of A ugust germinal pods appear, and subsequently increase
th em , _ ^„lnut Th e 'sh e ll hardens, and at the beginning of
Ortober'bursts v^en through the fissures may be seen the white fibres
f nttnn • this at length hangs out of the pod, and is then ready to be
gathered.' Cotton culture in weeding time and harvest requires despate ,
and consequently, the employment of many hands. The cotton is
freed from the pods and seeds by the clumsiest of contrivances such
a s tax the patience even of a Chinaman ; and the preparation of threa ,
by the Russian soldiers, under Chinese superintendence,
but the climatic conditions of those seasons
happened to be unfavourable, and I did not hear that
the cultivation was being carried on to any considerable
extent at the time of my visit.
From Borokhudzir we drove out by the wide street,
fringed with canals and willows, very early in the
morning; and, having crossed the river that gives its
name to the village, we traversed a vastly improved
region, where on either hand there met us tokens of
culture, in the form of well-arranged canals, but all in
ruins, and the land overgrown with weeds. The road
entered the remains of a considerable forest of prickly
shrubs, pines, willows, and karagatch trees, said to
have extended in former times as a cultivated forest
nearly all the way to Kuldja. Chinese settlements
were scattered throughout, and the ruins of them are
still visible, but the trees, no longer cared for or irrigated,
are fast dying. Nine miles from Borokhudzir
we crossed the River Usek, on whose bank (jar) are
situated the ruins of Jarkend.
and weaving it, is carried on by machines equally primitive. Comparing
the lengths of three kinds of cotton grown in the Borokhudzir
valley, it was found that the “ Tashken d” measured 3§ inches; the
“ American” upwards of 7 inches; but that Chinese cotton of the
“ Tashken d” sort was shorter. The Chinese cultivate cotton as an
accessory to com growing, but seek to produce only so much as will
supply the family with clothing, and not for export like tea. This
remark, however, would not apply to the natives of Samarkand, where
cotton is grown under more favourable conditions. In a paper transmitted
to the American Geographical Society of New York in 1875 by
M. Brodowsky, on the Cotton of Central Asia, the author states that, in
1868, Russia manufactured ¿¿12,167,400 worth of cotton ; that she consumes
yearly 48,000 tons of raw cotton, and more than ¿¿450,000 worth
of English y am ; that of this quantity 9,600 tons (or one-fifth of the
whole) come from Central Asia, and 3,200 tons from Persia. The rest
is bought in Liverpool, 2,000 tons being of American, and 16,000 tons
of East Indian arowth.