THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



225 



The art is exercised under different conditions. The 

 Chinese cultivator is not asked for railk, or butter, or cheese, 

 or mutton, or beef. The Chinaman does not object to a 

 little buffalo or goat's milk with his rice; and if some curious 

 accident should have brought butTalo flesh into his basin, he 

 will eat it. But he rarely or never buj-s it. In his recent 

 voyage of discovery up the " (ireat .lunk" or " Great 

 "Western River," Commander Elliott and Captain Edgell 

 saw droves of buffaloes upon the uplands to the north of 

 Canton, and we know that milk and mutton are common 

 food in Tartarj-; but I am speaking of those parts of China 

 where agriculture is supposed to reach perfection, not of the 

 mountain pastures. Pork, poultry, and vegetables, and the 

 creatures that swim or crawl about his rivers and canals, are 

 the Chinaman's natural dainties. Stall feeding, therefore, 

 would not pay even so moderately (taking sale of stock 

 only into consideration) as it does withjus, and grass is only 

 seen growing rank on graves. One or two buffaloes to turn 

 the irrigating wheel and plough the paddy fields, two or 

 three goats, a breeding sow, a quantity of those ugly, long- 

 legged fowls so ignorantly called "Cochin-Chinas" in Eng- 

 land, and a flock of ducks and geese— such is the livestock 

 of a Chinese form which maintains a hundred labourers. 



Stable-yard manure, therefore, is scant. Nor is it much 

 coveted. Human ordure is, in a Chinaman's opinion, the 

 only perfect fertilizer. This is collected with the most op- 

 pressive care. In the cities and in the neighbourhood of 

 cities enormous dark open earthenware pans offend the 

 senses at every town, poisoning the air, inviting, and too 

 often receiving, the contributions of the passers-by. The 

 privilege of collection is sold for a large price, and the Can- 

 tonese have a proverb that a fortune every day passes in 

 that form out of their gates. In the suburbs every cottage 

 has its open earthenware cesspool. In the country every 

 house has its public latrine, ostentatiously placed with its 

 open doorless entrance to the public path. In these temples 

 the Chinese worship with a deliberate solemnity which sa- 

 vours of the ostentatious performance of a religious rite. 

 The numbers and suffocating effluvia of these opposition 

 manure-traps are to an Englishman a never-ceasing horror. 

 They constitute his first and last impression of the country. 

 Like everything else in China, the favour awarded by law 

 and custom to the collection of manure is used as a contri- 

 vance for extortion. At Ningpo two immense pans lie op- 

 posite to the entrance-door of the first native merchant in 

 that city, awaiting the payment of 2,000 dollars, which is the 

 price of their removal. The boats which convey this pro- 

 duce through the inner waters will bring up close to you at 

 night, and will remove only for a consideration. I knew 

 an Enylishman at Shanghai who was obliged to pay 30 dol- 

 lars upon one occasion of this kind; but then he, in Britan- 

 nic fashion, had knocked the extortioner into the midst of 

 his liquid cargo. 



These details of the " sordida lura" are not pleasant to 

 write ; at all times " difficile est proprie communia dicere," 

 but if the object be to depict or to comprehend China," they 

 must be written and read. This manure is sprinkled over 

 the plant. It is too precious to be worked into the ground. 

 The straw and the burnt hulra of the cotton plant are re- 

 turned to the soil — that is all. The Chinese transplant 

 every root of rice by hand, just as we should transplant 

 young trees, and each has its little blessing of liquid ma- 

 nure as it is sown. This homoeopathic system would not 

 do, I apprehend, with our hungry clay lands. 



The art of agriculture is, I repeat, exercised under dif- 

 ferent conditions in China to what it is in England. Give 

 an English farmer a thousand acres of vegetable loam of an 

 unexplored depth— a reticulation of waterways, which en- 

 ables him to flood at pleasure every acre of his soil — an 

 unfading supply of manual labour at.4d. a day — and cheap 

 communication, by tidal creeks, with large markets ; give 

 him also periodical rains, perfect drainage, and abundance 

 of quickly ripening sunshine, and see what crops of corn 

 and pulse and pot-herbs he would produce. I saj- nothing 

 of tea, and cotton, and mulberry leaves ; for our friend 

 Giles would have to scratch his head a little before he could 

 start on a race to overtake these Chinamen, who ai-e 4,000 

 years of practice a head of him. 



But then, per contra, it must be recollected that this park 

 of Ceres is infested by poachers. These happy fields are 



overrun by extortionate mandarins, pillaging soldiers, ma- 

 rauders, who in small bands are called robbers, and in large 

 bands aspire to be rebels and to be led by "kings," river 

 pirates who levy blackmail, and occasional swarms of locusts 

 which darken the sun. Simple folk may chatter about the 

 horrible injustice of coercing the governing powers of Chi- 

 na : but a Government which exacts and does not protect 

 is only a badly-organized brigandage. 1 see no act of duty 

 in rescuing a tly from a spider or a sparrow from a hawk, 

 yet I do not regard either deed as unlawful. Quite sure I 

 am that the larger interest of humanity would besubserve'd 

 by any train of circumstances which should bring the Chi- 

 nese population to comprehend not only our Western no- 

 tions of probity and honour, but also our Western habits of 

 working those notions into practice. 



A curious instance has just occurred of the promptitude 

 and ingenuity with which the Chinese seize upon occasions 

 for extortion. Rumours had reached the ears of the Ad- 

 miral that some Chinamen were levying contributions in the 

 towns and villages ou the banks of the river, and that they 

 were doing so in the name of the English fleet. Com- 

 mander Fellowes, in the Cruiser, accompanied by Mr. Wade, 

 chief of the interpreter staff, were sent to inquire into this. 

 These officers, with a small force, landed and proceeded from 

 village to village, prosecuting their inquiries under much 

 discouragement, for the suspicious inhabitants apparently 

 imagined that the collectors of the barbarian tribute were 

 come among them. It was only by slow degrees that Mr. 

 Wade gained some credit to his declarations that he was 

 not come to " squeeze." Then the quick eye of the Com- 

 mander detected a rowboat, built to imitate a man-of-war's 

 boat, but having points of difference enough to show a sea- 

 man that it had been constructed by Chinese hands. Soon 

 afterwards Mr. Wade's attention was attracted to a notice 

 posted in one of the more remote villages, and purporting 

 to proceed from the honourable English nation. This pro- 

 clamation stated that some of the husbandmen had not paid 

 the regulated grain-tax due to the English fleet for protect- 

 ing their crops, and threatened the defaulters that if the 

 amount were not paid upon a certain day the ships would 

 commence firing upon the villages. Following up this clue, 

 the exploring party at last found that there was a society 

 calling themselves the "Hall of Patriotism and Peace," 

 who were in active collection of this tribute money ; and 

 that they actually had a prison well filled with victims 

 within musket-shot of the ships. Of course, the prisoners 

 (six of whom were found loaded with chains) were set at 

 liberty ; and the Admiral has circulated a notice in Chinese, 

 disavowing any connection with such exactions. It was 

 believed, however, that the Chinamen who contract to sup- 

 ply the fleet with provisions were at the head of this so- 

 ciety ; and subsequent inquiry discovered that there was a 

 small fleet of row-boats, some got up to imitate English 

 boats, and others having Chinese equipments and mandarin 

 banners, which lurked by day in the creeks and came out 

 at night. These boats all" belonged to the " Hall of Pa- 

 triotism and Peace," and they levied contributions alter- 

 nately in the name of each of the belligerent Powers. The 

 grand master of this lodge has been treated to four dozen 

 lashes, and has had his head shaved ; but he is no China- 

 man if he will not incur a similar flogging for a similar ob- 

 ject to-morrow. — Times. 



FUNNY RAT TRAP.— A correspondent of the Ge- 

 nessee Farmer relates the following funny way of catching 

 rats :— " I build my corn crib on posts about eighteen niches 

 high, made rat-proof except at one of tlie_ back corners. 

 Here, where they will like it best, make a nice hole with a 

 spout'five inches long on the outside, where they can go in 

 and out and eat at pleasure. Then, if I think the rats are 

 too numerous, I take a bag, after dark, and slip the mouth 

 over the spout on the outside of the granary. Then send 

 " Ben" in at the door with a light, and the rats and mice 

 will run into the bag. Then slip the bag off the spout, and 

 slap it once or twice against the side of the granary. Turn out 

 the dead, and in an hour or two repeat the process. After 

 all are killed, stop up the hole till new recruits arrive, 

 which catch the same way." 



