304 OF THE CULTURE OT" RICE. Part IIL 



pond or great pool of water, from which they are feperated only 

 i>y a bank, or caufey. 



!f the water were higher than the rice ground, a treiK;h cut 

 through the caufey would overflow it at once: but as it is generally 

 lower, or on a level with the rice ground, the neceiiary quantity 

 is conveyed in pails or buckets, which are worked chiefly by the 

 help of ropes. 



10. Though a man cannot llep in thefe rice grounds without be- 

 ing up to his knees, the Chinefe weed them three times in a fum- 

 mer; and that with fuch care, that they pull up even the roots of 

 every weed. 



1 1. When the rice is ripe, which is known by its turning yellow, 

 like wheat, it is cut down with a fickle, made into fheaves, and 

 carried to a barn, where it is threflied with flails pretty much like 

 ours : the ftraw is removed with pitchforks and Ihovels, and the 

 Outer hufk of the grain is taken olt' by beating it with great wooden 

 peftles, or a kind of mallet; after v/hich it is lifted and winnowed: 

 and laftly, to get off the under hufl<, the grain is put between two 

 mill-ftones, which are worked by a lever faflened to the upper 

 one. 



The two moft remarkable circumftances of this culture are, 



1. The care which the Chinefe take not to let their plants be too 

 clofe together, left they fliould rob one another of their food. 



2. Their weeding their rice grounds three times 'in a fummer, which 

 anfwers the end of the hoeing we recommend for the alleys be- 

 tween the beds of other grain. 



The following is the defcription of a Chinefe plough, of which 

 the Jefuits fent a model from China. 



Plate I. Fig. I. A A are the two fnafts, BB tv/o fliares, CC the, 

 handles by v/hich the driver guides the plough, and D a box in 

 which the feed is put. 



As the plough advances, the fliares open two furrows, and the 

 feed in the boxZ), drops through an outlet £ in its hinder part, and 

 falls into a trough F, at the bottom of which are tv/o holes, one 

 anfwering to a pipe G, which communicates v/ith a hollow bored in 

 the piece of wood H, and terminates in an outlet at the back part of 

 the Ihare /.- the other hole in the trough conveys the feed to ths 

 outlet Mat the back part of the other ihare, through the pipe NO, 

 -as on the other fide before defcribed. 



Now 



