140 STUDIES OF NATURE. 



It would be, moreover, neceflary, in order tQ 

 increafe the national fubfiftence, to reflore to th^ 

 plough great quantities of land now in pafture^ 

 There is hardly fuch a thing as a meadow in all 

 China, a country fo extremely populous. The 

 Chinefe fow every where corn and rice, and feed 

 their cattle with the flraw. They fay it is better 

 that the beads fliould live with Man than Man 

 with the beads. Their cattle are not the lefs fat 

 for this. The German horfes, the mofl vigorous 

 of animals, feed entirely on ftraw cut fliort, with a 

 fmall mixture of barley or oats. Our farmers are 

 every day adopting practices the direél contrary of 

 this economy. They turn, as I have obferved in 

 many provinces, a great deal of land which for- 

 merly produced corn, into fmall grafs-farms, to 

 fave the cxpence of cultivation, and efpecially to 

 efcape the tithe, which their clergy do not receive 

 from pailure-lands. I have feen, in Lower- Nor- 

 mandy, immenfe quantities of land, thus forced 

 out of their natural flate, greatly to the public de- 

 triment. The following anecdote was told me, 

 on my taking notice of an ancient track of corn- 

 land, which had undergone a metamorphofis of 

 this fort. The redor, vexed at lofing part of his 

 revenue, without having it in his power to com- 

 plain, faid to the owner of the land, by way of 

 advice : " Mafter Peter, in my opinion, if you 



" would 



