more saline subsoil, but that since they had opened canals, improving the drainage, trees were no longer dying. There is little doubt that proper drainage by means of canals, and the irrigation which would go with it, would make all of these lands, now more or less saline, highly productive, as are now those contiguous to the existing water courses.
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Fig. 200.—China's method of shallow cultivation, producing an earth mulch to conserve soil moisture.
It had rained two days before our drive over the Taku
road and when we applied for a conveyance the proprietor
doubted whether the roads were passible, as he had been
compelled to send out an extra team to assist in the return
of one which had been stalled during the previous night.
It was finally arranged to send an extra horse with us.
The rainy season had just begun but the deep trenching
of the roads concentrates the water in them and greatly
intensifies the trouble. In one of the little hamlets through
which we passed the roadway was trenched to a depth of
three to four feet in the middle of the narrow street,
leaving only five feet for passing in front of the dwellings
