THE FARMER AT HOME. 33 



graceful curve ; their bodies round, and the bill rises in a knob ; a 

 characteristic of all the Asiatic goose-tribe, so far as we know ; and 

 both the bill and the legs are black. Their general color is almost as 

 uniform as that of our American wild geese ; and their flesh is said 

 to be very excellent. At the Agricultural Fair held at Poughkeepsie, 

 N. Y., in 1844, fine specimens of the Chinese goose were exhibited, 

 belonging to A. & H. Messier, of Fishkill. In the August following, 

 the talented editor of the Albany Cultivator visited the farm of these 

 gentlemen, where he saw their entire flock of these geese. He says 

 it was the finest exhibition of them that he ever beheld ; that there 

 were three or four broods of goslings, hatched in May, but grown np, 

 apparently as large as the old ones ; and the geese which hatched them 

 were all sitting for a second brood, which were expected to be out the 

 first of September. 



CHINESE AGRICULTURE. The pursuits of agriculture have 

 always been and still are held in hgh estimation by the Chinese, who 

 commence the agricultural year with a grand festival in honor of 

 spring. On this occasion the emperor, in imitation of his ancient 

 predecessor, performs the operation of ploughing and sowing seed in a 

 field set apart for that purpose, a custom that has very seldom been 

 neglected by the sovereigns of the Chinese Empire, who have thus 

 by their own example, stimulated their subjects to the performance 

 of these useful and necessary labors, and maintained the honorable 

 position and character of the husbandman, who even now holds a 

 rank in society above that of the soldier or merchant, however 

 wealthy the latter may be. 



Among the ancients, particularly the Egyptians, Persians, and 

 Greeks, it was a common practice to hold games and festivals, min- 

 gled with religious ceremonies, at that season when the earth is ready 

 to receive the seed, thus showing the cheerfulness with which the 

 farmers returned to their rustic toils, and the reliance they placed on 

 the Supreme Being to reward them with an abundant harvest. The 

 old festival of Plough Monday in England, was probably derived from 

 these customs of the ancients, and was formerly celebrated in all of 

 the rural districts with great merry-makings on the Monday following 

 the twelfth-day ; some of the rites observed being not unlike those 

 among the Chinese, as an instance of which the plough-light was set 

 up before the image of some patron-saint in the village church ; a 

 custom somewhat similar to that observed among the Chinese, who 

 place lighted candles opposite certain images in their temples. 



The plough, the harrow, and the hoe, all of the rudest construc- 

 tion, are the chief implements used by a Chinese farmer, the spade 

 being only seen occasionally. The plough is usually drawn by buf- 

 faloes, but sometimes that labor is performed by men, and even by 

 women, among the lowest class of farmers. The great object of cul- 

 tivation is rice, the stable food of all classes, frorn the prince to the 



