largely
raised.

While rice does not, unlike tea and cotton, form the principal crop of
any one province it is more universally cultivated than any other
plant and forms an important item in the products of all the central
and southern provinces. Regarding China as a whole it forms the staple
product and food of the country. Two chief varieties are grown, that
suited only to low-lying regions requiring ample water and the red
rice cultivated in the uplands. Next to rice the most extensively
cultivated plants are tea and cotton, the sugar-cane, poppy and
bamboo. Besides the infinite variety of uses to which the wood of the
bamboo is applied, its tender shoots and its fruit are articles of
diet.

Fruits.

Fruit is extensively cultivated throughout China. In the northern
provinces the chief fruits grown are pears, plums, apples, apricots,
peaches, medlars, walnuts and chestnuts, and in Kan-suh and Shan-tung
the jujube (q.v.). Strawberries are an important crop in Kan-suh. In
Shan-si, S.W. Chih-li and Shan-tung the vine is cultivated; the grapes
of Shan-si are reputed to produce the best wine of China. Oranges are
also grown in favoured localities in the north. The chief fruits of
the central and southern provinces are the orange, lichi, mango,
persimmon, banana, vine and pineapple, but the fruits of the northern
regions are also grown. The coco-nut and other palms flourish on the
southern coast.

The poppy.

As shown above, the poppy has been grown in almost every district of
China. In 1906 it was chiefly cultivated in the following provinces:
Yun-nan, Kwei-chow, Sze-ch'uen, Kan-suh, Shen-si, Shan-si, Shan-tung,
Ho-nan, Kiang-su (northern part) and Cheh-kiang. The poppy is first
mentioned in Chinese literature in a book written in the first half of
the 8th century A.D., and its medicinal qualities are referred to in
the _Herbalist's Treasury_ of 973. It was not then nor for centuries
later grown in China for the preparation of opium.[19] There is no
evidence to show that the Chinese ever took opium in the shape of
pills (otherwise than medicinally). The cultivation of the poppy for
the manufacture of opium began in China in the 17th century, but it
was not until after 1796, when the importation of foreign opium was
declared illegal, that the plant was cultivated on an extensive scale.
After 1906 large areas which had been devoted