CHIN A. 



291 



Agricul- 

 ture. 



Harvest 

 and pro- 

 ducf. 



Sardcning. 



Method of 

 propaga- 

 j* fruit 

 utt. 



Kmbelli'h- 

 mnits of 

 gardens. 



grow to a greater height than three feet ; but the straw 

 of millet is commonly about five feet in length. The 

 crops, in the middle provinces, are generally ripe in the 

 beginning of June, and in the southern districts, are 

 sometimes cut in April or May. The rice is ordinarily 

 reaped three months after being planted ; and its pro- 

 duce is generally from twenty-five to thirty for one, 

 that of the other grains is commonly from ten to 

 fifteen for one. The corns, when reaped, are put up in 

 MTiall ricks, till they can be conveniently thrashed; but 

 sometimes, especially in the northern provinces, where 

 the sky is remarkably free from clouds in the autumn 

 season, the grain is thrashed in the fields as soon as it is 

 cut. This is done by beating the ear against the edge 

 of a plank, or by treading it with oxen and buffaloes, or 

 by passing over it cylinders of stone, or by flails in the 

 hand as in Europe. The part of the flail which strikes 

 the grain is sometimes composed of two pieces of wood ; 

 and is fixed to the handle, not by a piece of leather or 

 skin, so as to turn easily any way, but by a small peg, 

 which allows it to move only in a vertical direction. 

 Besides the rice of a white colour, there is an inferior 

 kind, of a reddi-.h hue, which is eaten by the lower 

 classes, or employed in distillation. The Chinese never 

 cultivate oats, which would grow well in their fields, 

 but which they pull up as a useless plant. Their horses 

 are fed with cut straw and beans, or with natural grass. 

 Their draught cattle are oxen, buffaloes, asses, and 

 mules ; but all these are, every where, except in the 

 northern provinces, extremely rare ; and no means are 

 used for improving the breed of any domestic animal. 



The Chinese excel in gardening, more than in agricul- 

 ture ; and have the talent of rendering a small spot pro- 

 ductive in the highest degree. They confine their at- 

 tention, however, principally to the quantity of vegetal le 

 produce, and are little acquainted with the means of im- 

 proving the quality of their fruits, and hastening the 

 growth of plants by the exclusion of cold air, by the ad- 

 mission of the sun's rays through glass covers, or by the 

 application of artificial heat. Their oranges, and other 

 native fruits, are naturally good, without much attention 

 on the part of the gardener ; but the European fruits 

 raised in the country, namely, apples, pear , peaches, apri- 

 cots and plums, are very indifferent. Their method of 

 propagating fruit trees is curious, and may be worthy of 

 notice. In the spring season, they strip a ring of bark, 

 about an inch wide, from a bearing branch ; surround the 

 place with a ball of fat eartli or loam, binding it fast with 

 a piece of matting ; and suspend directly above it a pot 

 or horn full if water, with a small hole in its lower part, 

 sufficient to let the water drop in such quantities, as to 

 keep the earth constantly and uniformly moist. The 

 branch, when treated in this manner, inrows out new 

 roots into the ball of earth just above the ring, from which 

 the bark wa^ taken ; and, if sawn off and planted at the 

 fall of the leaf, it bean fruit the following summer. 



The Chinese are particularly eminent in the art of em- 

 bellishing garden grounds which may be considered as 

 the only one of the fine arts, in which they display either 

 genius or taste. In tins department, they are said to 

 hare attained a high degree of perfection ; and to possess 

 the most striking and distinct conceptions of p'cturesque 

 beauty. There is supposed to be a great resemblance 

 between the> English and the Chinese style of gardening; 

 except, that the excellence of the former consists rather 

 in improving, and that of the latter in conquering natmj. 

 The object of a Chinese planner u to change every thing 



from the state in which he finds it ; and he is therefore Garden- 

 little anxious about the natural advantages of the spot, _*" . 

 which he chooses as the scene of his operations. " If ^"V 

 there be a waste," says Lord Macartney, " he adorns it 

 with trees ; if a dry desert, he waters it with a river, or 

 floats it with a lake. If there be a small flat, he varies 

 it with all possible conversions ; he undulates the surface, 

 he raises it with hills, he scoops it into vallies, he rough- 

 ens it with rocks." They require only a good exposure, 

 a salubrious atmosphere, and a retired situation ; and then 

 they set themselves to collect, in that one spot, all the 

 most interesting and picturesque objects, which an exten- 

 sive tract of country could furnish. Their great object 

 is to bring together under one view the cultivated field 

 and the barren waste, and they particularly exert them- 

 selves to render the surface uneven ; to cover it with fac- 

 titious rocks, to dig caverns and narrow passages along 

 the sides of the eminences ; to cover some of these little 

 hills with wood, and to leave others completely naked ; 

 to plant their trees in the utmost irregularity, as if drop- 

 ped by chance, and to open, amidst all this apparent die- 

 order, a number of winding paths, which perpetually ap- 

 proach each other, without even uniting, and which seem 

 to prolong the extent of the scene, without any termina- 

 tion. If water can be procured, it is precipitated from the 

 heights, made to open for itself a passage among the 

 rocks, conducted through the grounds in various direc- 

 tions, and at length collected in a lake, upon which the 

 ladies, in barks of an elegant construction, amuse them- 

 selves with sailing, fishing, and enjoying the freshness of 

 the fragrant air. These lakes are covered with leaves 

 and flowers of their large and beautiful water plants; 

 stored with a multitude of little shining fishes ; studded 

 with islands, ornamented with pavilions, triumphal arches 

 and pagodas ; and bordered with rugged stones, which 

 communicate a romantic irregularity to their form and 

 aspect, or with a shade of weeping willows hanging over 

 a beach of shells and sand. The general defect of these 

 scenes is the confusion, created by such a multitude of dif- 

 ferent objects, crowded within a narrow space ; and one 

 instance of bad taste, from which none of them is exempt, 

 appears in the large porcelain figures of lions, tygcrs, 

 &c. which are scattered about in the greatest profusion. 



The most magnificent and extensive of the emperor's jmperi:.' 

 gardens are those of Yuen-niin yuen at Pckin, and of g;int -H.<. 

 Gehol in Tartary ; the latter of which is admirably de- 

 scribed by Lord Macartney, * who compares the* wes- 

 tern part of it to Lowther hall in Westmoreland. The 

 former, comprehends an extent of ground, not less than 

 ten English miles in diameter, or about 60,000 acres ; and 

 contains, within its inclosure, thirty separate habitations 

 for the emperor, each of them composing a village of con- 

 siderable magnitude. Much of it is waste or woodland ; 

 and the general aspect of some parts of it is likened to that 

 of Richmond. The trees, in some places, an- so carefully 

 arranged with respect to their figure and foliage, as to 

 present a most beautiful landscape ; while its numerous 

 canals, rivers and lakes, are disposed in so irregular a style, 

 as to have more the appearance of a natural origin, than 

 of an a.-tificial construction. 



The population of China has been a subject of much p OPUrA ... 

 calculation and of keen dispute among all who have written HON. 

 upon the state of that empire ; and there are still no suf- 

 ficiently authentic documents, from which its amount can 

 be satisfactorily ascertained. The statements of the 

 French missionaries refer to so many different periods, . 



Barrow's Tratvlt in C/.JM:, p. 126. 



