27$ CHINESE HUSBANDRY, 



*t quickens its pace ; confequently the faline 

 flime, which has fettled itfelf and becomes ma- 

 nure to the fields, cannot be wafhed off again. 



RICE-FIE LDS. 



The rice-grounds are fo foft in fome places, 

 that the flood carries away the foil from the 

 ihores : to prevent this, they are planted 

 \vith cypreffes, whofe roots being twined 

 among one another give a confidence to the 

 earth. And as each great rice- field is fepa- 

 rated from the river by broad ditches, thefe 

 long rows of cypreffes make a very fine fheWj 

 efpecially when the field is under water. 



They have a different fort of rice-fields 

 in higher places, fuch as cannot be watered 

 by the flood. About each of thefe fields 

 they make, for the fake of watering, a dyke 

 two or three feet deep, within which they ei- 

 ther colled pr let the water run off in the 

 rainy feafqn, as they think proper, but jn the 

 dry feafon they convey it to thefe fpots. The 

 foil of thefe fields is a mixture of a ftrong 

 day and mould : and as the annual pro- 

 duce thereof may be double that of the others, 



they 



