Fundamentals of Agriculture and Sericulture, Volume 3

...Once the water has fully soaked in, sow the mallow seeds. Immediately stop.

Every time you harvest the leaves, you must immediately rake and harrow the soil to loosen it. Apply water and add manure. After three

harvests, sow again. Within a single year, one generally obtains three batches. Generally, for all crops grown in plots, the preparation of the plots is always

done according to this mallow-planting method; I will not list them individually again to avoid tedious text.

For dry-field sowing original: "旱種" (hanzhong). This refers to planting in fields that rely on rainfall rather than the intensive irrigation of the "plot" system described previously., one must plow in autumn. At the end of the tenth month, when the ground

is about to freeze, scatter the seeds and harrow original: "勞" (lao). A process of leveling the soil and covering seeds using a frame or weighted brush. them. Use three sheng per mu; planting in the first month is also acceptable. If not yet scattered, use people’s feet to tread

upon the soil; this is best. Treading firms the soil. When the frost thaws, the plants will grow immediately. Do not grow weary of hoeing them many times—five

times or more. In the [fifth] month, sow them again. The spring crops will have already grown old, while the autumn leaves are just beginning to emerge; therefore, sow at this time to bridge the gap between them. On the first

day of the sixth month, sow white-stemmed autumn mallow. The white-stemmed variety is suitable for drying; the purple-stemmed variety turns black and becomes astringent. Autumn mallow

is fit for eating. However, one should still keep the plants sown in the fifth month to harvest their seeds. Spring mallow seeds ripen unevenly, which is why one must keep these [later plants] instead.