Book I. AGRICULTURE IN ASIA. 



155 



degree of heat at Negasaki was 98° in August, and the severest cold in January, 35°. 

 The face of the country presents some extensive plains, but more generally mountains, 

 hills, and valleys ; the coast being mostly rocky and precipitous, and invested with a 

 turbulent sea. It is also diversified with rivers and rivulets, and many species of 

 vegetables. 



957. The soil of Japan, though barren, is rendered productive by fertilising showers, 

 by manure, and by the operation of agricultural industry. 



958. Agriculture, Thunberg informs us, is here well understood, and the whole country, 

 even to the tops of the hills, is cultivated. Free from all feudal and ecclesiastical im- 

 pediments, the farmer applies himself to the culture of the soil with diligence and vigour. 

 Here are no commons ; and it is a singular circumstance, that, if any portion be left 

 uncultivated, it may be seized by a more industrious neighbour. The Japanese mode 

 of manuring is to form a mixture of all kinds of excrements with kitchen refuse, wliich 

 is carried in pails into the field, and poured with a ladle upon the plants, when they 

 have attained the height of about six inches ; so that they thus instantly receive the whole 

 benefit. They are also very attentive to weeding. lire sides of the hills are culti- 

 vated by means of stone walls, supporting broad plots, sown with rice or esculent roots. 

 Rice is the chief grain ; buckwheat, rye, barley, and wheat being little used. A kind 

 of root, used as the potato (Convolvulus edulis), is abundant, with several sorts of 

 beans, peas, turnips, cabbages, &c. From the seed of a kind of cabbage, lamp oil is 

 expressed ; and several plants are cultivated for dyeing, with the cotton shrubs, and 

 mulberry trees for the food of silkworms. The varnish and camphire trees, the vine, 

 the cedar, the tea tree, and the bamboo reed, not only grow wild but are planted for 

 numerous uses. 



959- In respect to live stock, there are neither sheep nor goats in the whole empire of 

 Japan ; and, in general, there are but few quadrupeds. The food of the Japanese con- 

 sists almost entirely of fish and fowl with vegetables. Some few dogs are kept from 

 motives of superstition ; and cats are favourites with the ladies. Hens and common 

 ducks are domesticated for the sake of their eggs. 



l oo" 



Sudsect. 8. Of the present State of Agriculture in the Chinese Empire. 



960. Agricultural im}>rovement in China has, in all ages, been encouraged and 

 honoured. The husbar.dman is considered an honourable, as well as a useful, member of 

 society ; he ranks next to men of letters or officers of state, of whom he is frequently 

 the progenitor. The soldier, in China, cultivates the ground. The priests also are 

 agriculturists, whenever their convents are endowed with land. Notwithstanding all 

 these advantages, however, the Chinese empire is by no means so generally cultivated 

 as Du Halde and other early travellers asserted. Some districts are almost entirely 

 under cultivation ; but in many there are extensive wastes. 



961. Dr. Abel is of opinion that in that part of China passed through by Lord Am- 

 herst's embassy, the land " very feebly productive in food for man fully equalled that 

 which afforded it in abundant quantity." He never found extensive tracts of land in 

 general cultivation, but often great industry and ingenuity on small spots ; and concludes 

 that " as horticulturists the Chinese may perhaps be allowed a considerable share of 

 merit ; but, on the great scale of agriculture, they are not to be mentioned with any Eu- 

 ropean nation." {Narrative, 127.) 



962. Livingstone, an intelligent resident in China, observes, " The statement in the Encyclopedia 

 Britannica, that ' Chinese agriculture is distinguished and encouraged by the court beyond all other 

 sciences,' is incorrect, since it is unquestionably subordinate to literature; and it may be well doubted 

 whether it ought to be considered as holding among the Chinese the rank of a science; for, inde- 

 pendently of that routine which has been followed, with little variation, from a very high antiquity, they 

 seem to be entirely ignorant of all the principles by which it could have been placed on a scientific found- 

 ation." {Hort. Trans., v. 49.) 



963. The climate of China is in general reckoned moderate, though it extends from 

 the 50th to the 21st degree of south latitude, and includes three climates. The northern 

 parts are liable to all the rigours of a European winter. Even at Pekin, at fhat season, 

 the average of the thermometer is under 20° during the night, and in the day consi- 

 derably below the freezing point. The heat of those parts which lie under the tropics 

 is moderated by the winds from the mountains of Tatary. In the southern parts there 

 is neither frost nor snow, but storms are very frequent, especially about the time 

 of the equinoxes ; all the rest of the year the sky is serene, and the earth covered with 

 verdure. 



964. The surface of the country, though in general flat, is much diversified by chains 

 of granite mountains, hills, rivers, canals, and savage and uncultivated districts, towns 

 innumerable, villages, and cottages covered with thatch, reed, or palm leaves, and in 

 some places with their gardens, or fore-courts, fenced with rude pales, as in England. 



