140 THE YEAR-BOOK OF AGRICULTURE. 



The leading idea is not to permit any element of fertility to escape, either by solar evapo- 

 ration or leaching and washing, but compel growing plants to absorb and assimilate the 

 maximum of their appropriate food. 



Chinese Economy of Manure. 



A CORRESPONDENT of the London Literary Gazette gives the following memoranda respecting 

 the economy of manures, as noticed in China : 



My first excursion was to a place called Gading, thirteen miles from Malacca, where I had 

 permission to reside in a house occupied by some Chinese Christians, who are cultivating a 

 garnbir and pepper plantation. The house was a mere huge shed. I lived in it a fortnight, 

 as, strange to relate, the Chinese (I trust because they were Christians) kept it clean. No 

 people in the tropics really cultivate the soil as these do. They do not merely plant and 

 reap ; they dig and trench and level ; they eradicate weeds and stumps ; they keep the 

 ground clean, and they manure. The process of manuring, indeed, was the only thing I 

 objected to, as the tank was a large bucket kept standing for convenience in a corner of 

 the house. The rage for liquid manure is such, that, in the Chinese villages, a bucket often 

 stands near the door for public use. The pigs, for the same reason, are far better lodged 

 than with us, having a floor of poles with a tank beneath, in which all the manure is 

 collected. 



Mr. Mechi and Tiptree Hall. 



ALL have heard of Mr. Mechi, the celebrated English agriculturist, and of Tiptree Hall, 

 where his experiments in farming have been carried on ; but few are acquainted with the 

 history and details of this gentleman's experiences. We derive the following abstract from 

 the correspondence of the New York Tribune : 



Americans, who may have known London twenty or five-and-twenty years ago will remem- 

 ber a constant affix to the dead walls of the metropolis "MECHI'S MAGIC PASTE." 



This, in time, was succeeded by "Mechi's Magic Strop" and " Mechi's Magic Razor," 

 until at last these articles, by constant puffing and advertising, became of almost universal 

 use throughout Great Britain. As the result of his enterprise and tact, Mr. Mechi became 

 possessed of no inconsiderable wealth, a portion of which he resolved to devote to agricul- 

 tural experiments, still retaining his shop in town. 



Although the advertising of Mechi's articles had, in a great measure, ceased, it was im- 

 possible that a keen and enterprising man of this sort could be entirely forgotten. It was 

 not his character to allow himself to sink into oblivion together with his paste. After the 

 decline of that commodity, some time elapsed before Mr. Mechi again turned up ; but when 

 he did turn up, he turned up with a vengeance ! It was during that exciting period when 

 "free-trade" was agitating the minds of Englishmen and threatening to produce a revolu- 

 tion in the nation, that Mr. Mechi again came before the public. The scene was the House 

 of Commons ; the hour, twelve at night. Ministerial and Opposition benches were thronged ; 

 the galleries seemed ready to sink under the mass of "strangers" crowding into them. 

 "Hear! hear!" was most vociferous; "Oh! oh!" unusually sarcastic. Amid a volley 

 of both, some " honorable member" had just sat down, when, amid a silence as profound as 

 death, up rose Sir Robert Peel. That great statesman commenced, of course, in his blandest 

 tones. He touched lightly on the theme by the last speaker ; he treated tenderly two or 

 three salient points which had occurred in the debate ; and, after eliciting a cheer or two from 

 those who sat around him, came at once to the topic of his speech. 



He wanted that night, he said, to address himself to the agriculturists of England. He 

 desired to tell the landlords to their faces that the science of agriculture in this country was 

 most imperfectly understood. England, he wanted to impress upon them, was at least a 

 quarter of a century behind the age in agriculture, and would be outstripped even by Russia, 

 if we did not speedily adopt new methods. It was his opinion that, in many respects, the 

 English farmer had the very A B C of cultivation yet to learn. [At such an assurance as 



