76 MY SUMMER IN A GARDEN. 



of the Chinese and " pusley " in one of my agri- 

 cultural papers ; and it had a significance more 

 far-reaching than I had probably supposed. He 

 had made the Chinese problem a special study. 

 He said that I was right in saying that " pusley " 

 was the natural food of the Chinaman, and that 

 where the " pusley " was there would the China- 

 man be also. For his part, he welcomed the 

 Chinese emigration : we needed the Chinaman 

 in our gardens to eat the " pusley " ; and he 

 thought the whole problem solved by this simple 

 consideration. To get rid of rats and " pusley," 

 he said, was a necessity of our civilization. He 

 did not care so much about the shoe-business; 

 he did not think that the little Chinese shoes 

 that he had seen would be of service in the 

 army : but the garden-interest was quite another 

 affair. We want to make a garden of our whole 

 country : the hoe, in the hands of a man truly 

 great, he was pleased to say, was mightier than 



