Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
by an alternation of crops when the fields could be completely drained, or by building up
raised beds in the rice fields. The picking of the cotton was largely done by women. The
clothing of farmers was restricted by decree to hemp and cotton, so that a good deal of the
production was reserved for home use, spinning and weaving being two of the more usual
occupations of the womenfolk.
(37) Growing cotton required much water, and the fields are dotted with wells.
The third widely used textile material was silk, which, although they produced it, the
farmers were not allowed to use. By far the greater proportion of silk thread came from
worms reared in special rooms, very often in the upper floor of farmhouses, rather than
from cocoons collected from outside, where the silkworms had been feeding on trees. Silk
rearing was virtually restricted to the main island. The normal procedure was that eggs
were kept in a cool place over the winter, adhering naturally to the paper on which the
moths had been induced to lay them the season before. The mulberry trees that provided
the food for the grubs were every year cut down nearly to ground level so that shoots grew
out in spring, which produced particularly large and succulent leaves from the middle of
May.When hesawthat the leaves wouldbeavailable intime, the farmer orhiswomenfolk
would bring out the eggs from the cool store, and spread out the papers on which they still
stuck in the special rooms, which have to be dry, with fresh air and no direct sun. As the
