S1UYEN                            211
footpad is in season, and so perfect is the cover that the local authorities make no attempt to effect arrests until after the harvest. So difficult did the Russians find movement amidst this crop in 1900 that they made no attempt to move beyond Tashihchiao and to restore their damaged railway until well on in September, and for two years after the Boxer troubles the crop was not allowed within 600 yards of the line.
When fully grown the stems of the kaoliang are rough and impede movement; the ground is usually wet and soft; as the crop covers three-fourths of the Liau Valley, it renders all movements of troops, except infantry in open order, next to impracticable for two months. The chief of the other crops in Southern Manchuria are the small yellow millet, the stalks of which make capital fodder for horses, dwarf beans, and a grass resembling small millet with white grains. In the Siuyen Valley only a little kaoliang is grown in patches, but there are maize, cotton, small millet, and beans.
Siuyen is an ideal assembly ground for a large army in the mountains. It stands in a high and healthy open valley, fifteen miles by ten, with dry, porous soil, and it is traversed by three pure water streams. From the south it can be reached by three rough but fairly good cart tracks, passable in all seasons, leading from Pitszewo, Tachuangho, and Takushan. These tracks are bordered by steep hills, rising sharply from the valleys and covered with brushwood and coarse grass. From Siuyen roads radiate in all directions, and even if circumstances compelled an army to remain in this valley during the rains, its situation would be infinitely preferable to that of another in the Liau Valley, exposed to the dreaded summer diseases of July, which may take a heavy toll of the Russian army. The Siuyen-Haicheng road is well cultivated, save here and there a sandy waste, and the side valleys on each side of the road are not without a fair proportion of crops.
It will be seen from the above details, and from