months. The summer is hot, the temperature rising to over 100° Fahrenheit in the shade. The rainy season falls in July.[1] For the rest of the year there is comparatively little rain ; brilliant sunshine and blue skies recall the Riviera and South Italy.
Honan produces an abundance of food of all kinds. In the time of wheat harvest, the plain presents the appearance of a sea of colour extending to the horizon in every direction. Wheat, barley, peas, beans, rape seed, and sweet potatoes constitute the first crop; cotton, Indian corn, millet, kaoliang, beans, and hemp the second. Apples, pears, peaches, plums, persimmon, and grapes of poor quality are found. With the exception of the persimmon, the fruit is somewhat hard and tasteless. The willow tree is a very marked feature of the plain. The elm, the mulberry, and oak and small fir trees are found in various districts. In the neighbourhood of Lushan Hsien is found an oak tree whose leaves supply food for the silk-worm. Lushan is largely known for its trade in "wild silk." The thread is sold at a little less than a tael per catty (3s. for 1⅓ lbs.).
Salt is plentiful in the neighbourhood of the Yellow River. Amongst the manufactures, silks and satins occupy a prominent position; drugs, felt, paper, ox glue, leather, catgut, string, iron and brass work, silver, steel, pottery, and other industries are carried on.
In Honan the people state that the use of opium commenced sixty years ago. The cultivation of the poppy began thirteen years after the introduction of the drug. The progress in this cultivation has been considerably extended, and native opium is now largely used.
The quality of opium varies. The best is known as "Kwangtung" opium. This comes from India; the second quality is supplied by Kansu; the third by Shensi; the fourth by Honan and Shansi; and the fifth by Szechwan
- ↑ "Rain is very scarce and unevenly distributed. It is quite common to go six and eight months without rain. The heavy rainfalls take place in June and July; but there is not, properly speaking, 'a wet season,' such as is common in other parts of China, where the air is heavy with moisture and it is impossible to keep clothing dry."—Slimmon.
