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I. 



AGRICULTURE IN ASIA. 



163 



156 



the most universally used engine is the chain-pump, worked in various ways by oxen, 



walking in a wheel, or by 



the hand ; and next to it 



buckets worked by long 



levers, [Jig. 157.), as in the 



gardens round London, 



Paris, Constantinople, and 



most large cities of Eu- 

 rope. For pounding olei- 



feroi's seeds they have also 



very simple and economi- 

 cal machines, in which pes- 

 . ties on the ends of levers 



are worked by a horizontal 



shaft put in motion by 



a water-wheel, (fig. 15S.) 



The chief thing to admire 



in the implements and 



machines of India anrl 



China is their simplicity, 



and the ease and little 



expence with which they 



may be constructed. 



J 7 ^^^ 988. The operations of Chinese agriculture are numerous, 



and some of them curious. Two great objects to be pro- 

 cured are water and manure. The . former is raised from 

 rivers or wells by the macliines already mentioned, and dis- 

 tributed over the cultivated surface in the usual manner, and 

 the latter from every conceivable source. 



989. The object of their tillage, Livingstone observes, " appears to be, in 

 the first instance, to expose the soil as extensively as possible ; and this 

 is best effected by throwing it up in large masses, in which state it is 

 finally prepared for planting. When suificieiit rain has fallen to 



allowed to remain till it 



allow the husbandman to flood his fields, they are laid under water, in which state they are commonly 

 ploughed again, in the same manner as for fallow, and then a rake, or rather a sort of harrow, about 

 three feet deep and four feet wide, with a single row of teeth, is drawn, by the same animal that draws 

 their plough, perjiendicularly through the soil, to break the lumps, and to convert it into a kind of ooze ; 

 and as the teeth of this rake or harrow are not set more than from two to three inches apart, it serves 

 at the same time, very effectually to remove roots, and otherwise to clean the ground For some pur- 

 poses, the ground thus prepared is allowed to dry ; it is then formed into beds or trenches ; the beds are 

 made of a convenient size for watering and laying on manure. The intermediate trenches are com . 

 monly about nine inches deep, and of the necessary breadth to give to the beds tlie required eleva- 

 tion ; but when the trenches are wanted for the cultivation of water plants, some part of the soil 

 is removed, so that a trench may be formed of the proper dimensions. 



99(). For these operations they use a hoe, commonly ten inches deep, and five inches broad, made of 

 iron, or of wood with an iron border, and for some purposes it is divided into four or five prongs. By 

 constant practice the Chinese have acquired such dexterous use of this simple instrument, that they forrii 

 their beds and trenches with astonishmg neatness and regularity. With it they raise the ground which 

 has not been ploughed, from the beds and trenches, by only changing it from a vertical to a horizontal 

 direction, or employing its edge. It is also used for digging, planting, and in general for every purpose 

 which a Chinese husbandman has to accomplish. 



991. The collection of manure is an object of so much attention with the Chinese, that a prodigious 

 number of old men, women, and children, incapable of much other labor, are conbtantly employed about 

 the streets, public roads, and banks of canals and river-s with baskets tied before them, and holding i. 



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