1838] 



FARMERS' REGISTER, 



229 



feeding; and also a part of the "Advertisement" of the 



French translator, S. Julien. In the last mentioneri, 

 oiir readers will probably find cause for astonishment 

 in the account of the great number of Chinese books 

 on agriculture. — Ed. Far. Reg.] 



Extract from the jrldvcrtisement of the Translator. 



A stranorer to the serigcnc industry, and to the 

 science of a<xrici.ilture, it does not belonj; to me, 

 above all, alu-r the introducdon of M. Caniille 

 Beauvais, to speak of the practical advantages 

 which the Chinese work offers, and of which I 

 now publish the translation. 



I will only present to the reader some details, 

 purely literary, of which, some will not, perhaps, 

 be uriinterestjng. The Chinese, whose literature 

 is the richest in the world, possesses many hun- 

 dred works upon agriculture, which, among us, 

 always comorises the raising of silk-xoorms and 

 the cultivation of mulberry trees. They have 

 also particular treatises, such as the Tsan-chou, 

 the Tsan-king (books on silk-worms); the Nan- 

 fang-tsan-chou. methods used in the south; the 

 Pe-fang-tsan-chou, methods used in the north of 

 China, the I-sang-tsong-lun, general considera- 

 tions upon the cultivation of mulberry trees, etc. 

 But among the twelve thousand Chinese volumes 

 which the Royal Library possesses, there are but 

 three works which treat in a manner more or less 

 extensive of the double question which occupies 

 us. The first is a small Encyclopa^-dia of the 

 Arts and Trades, in 3 volumes, 8vo., entitled 

 Thien-kong-kha'i-ioe, of which the second edition 

 has appeared in 1636. Brief proceedings are 

 found there, which competent persons have 

 thought very interesting. 1 have given them the 

 greater part in the Supplement, (page 187-169.) 

 The second work is found in an agricultural col- 

 lection of sixty books, entitled A'ong'tching-tsiou- j 

 en-chou. It has been composed by Siu-Kouang- j 

 ki, who, after having obtained the degree of Doc- j 

 tor, occupied successively the most eminent of- 

 fices, and became preceptor to the eldest son of 

 the Emperor. We see in his biography,* that in 

 the 35th year of the reign of Chin-tsong (1607), 

 he received lessons from a learned European 

 named Li-ma-teou, (the celebrated missionary, 

 Matthew Ricci), and that he studied under his di- 

 rection astronomy, mathematics, in their applica- 

 tion to the Chinese calendar, and the theory of 

 fire-arms. The Emperor Sse-tsong having heard 

 that Siu-kouang, who had just died, had left a 

 great work on agriculture, entitled Nong-tching- 

 tsiouen-chou, ordered it to be presented to him by 

 the nephew of the author, and ordered it to be 

 printed at the expense of the state. 



The third work is entitled King-ting-cheoa-chi- 

 thong-khao, or a General Examination of Agricul- 

 ture, composed by order of the Emperor.^ It is 

 twice as extensive as the preceding collection, and 

 is composed of lxxviii books, distributed in 24 

 volumes, small, in folio, printed with all the care 

 and elegance that distinguishes the imperial edi- 

 tions. This compilation, undertaken a hundred 

 years after, (in 1739,) in virtue of a special de- 



* Ming-sse (Annals of the Dynasty of the Ming), 

 book ccLi, folio 15, imperial edition, of twenty-four 

 historians of the first order, in 700 volumes, small folio. 

 Peking, 1739. 



cree, bj" learned men of the first order, aided by 



the most skilful agriculturists of the empire, ijivea 

 him a high importance. The extent of this work, 

 its olhcial character, and recent dale, if compared 

 wiili the two collections above-mentioned, have 

 made me resolve to extract from it the Treatise on 

 the Cultivation of Mulberry Trees and the liais- 

 ing of Silk- fVorms, the translation of which the 

 Minister of Commerce has intrusted to me. 



IIT was not alraid of being misled from my sub- 

 ject, I would make all the objects known which 

 this agricultural encyclopaedia embraces. I will 

 content myself lo say that a complete treatise can 

 be found there, (books xxi--xl.) of leguminous 

 plants, of grain, and particularly of the cultivation 

 of rice, accompanied by a number of figures en- 

 graved with care, of which more than a hundred 

 represent the ploughing instruments of the Chi- 

 nese, and the machines which they make use of 

 lor the irrigation of the fields. The part which I 

 have translated occupies books lxxij, i.xxvi. 



The reader will be able to form an idea of the 

 immense riches of the Chinese literature, by learn- 

 ing that the agricultural collections, entitled Cheou- 

 chi-thong-kao, from which my translation is ex- 

 tracted, made a part of the library of the most es- 

 timable works in China, of which the publication 

 was ordered in 1773, by the Emperor Khien-long, 

 and which, according to the decree of this prince, 

 was composed of a hundred and sixty thousand 

 volumes. This collection was to form (bur libra- 

 ries, called, Sse-kou, or the four Treasures. It 

 yet continues to be printed, and in 1818 there had 

 already appeared seventy-eight thousand six hun- 

 dred and twenty-seven volumes, of that vast col- 

 lection. There has been published by order of 

 the Emperor two accurate catalogues; one very 

 much abridged, in fifteen small volumes, 12mo., 

 (Peking. 1775,) and the other ver\' extensive in 

 one hundred and thirty-eight volumes, 8vo., (Pe- 

 king, 1782.) 



THE RAISING OF SILK-WORMS. 



PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS. 



Testimony from Chinese authors, who speak of 

 the cultivation of the mulberry, and the rais- 

 ing of silk-xoorms, from the most ancient times, 

 ('4438 years ago,) down to the year 976 of the 

 Christian era. 



In the Book on Silk Worms we read: 



" The lawful wife of the emperor Hoang-ti, 

 named Si-ling-chi, began the culture of silk." 



It was at that lime that the emperor, Hoang-ti, 

 invented the art of making garments. 



Observations by the Translator. — The same fact 

 is mentioned more in detail, in the General Histo- 

 ry of China, by P. Mailla, in the year 2602, before 

 our era, (4438 years ago.) 



" This great prince, (Hoang-ti,) was desirous 

 that Si-ling-chi, his legitimate wife, should con- 

 tribute to the happiness of his people. He charg- 

 ed her to examine the silk-worms, and to test the 

 practicability of using the thread. Si-ling-chi 

 had a large quantity of these insects collected, 

 which she fed herself^ in a place prepared solely 

 for that purpose, and discovered not only the 

 means of raising them, but also the manner of 



