Book I. AGRICULTURE IN ASIA. 159 



quantity consumed of it over the whole empire is, according to all authors, immense; 

 and, Dr. Abel thinks, it may be considered to the Chinese what the potato is to the 

 Irish. It is cultivated with great care, and requires abundant manuring, like its 

 congeners of the i?rassica tribe. Boiled, it has the flavour of asparagus ; and raw, it 

 eats like lettuce and is not inferior. It often weighs from fifteen to twenty pounds, 

 and reaches the height of two or tree feet. It is preserved fresh during winter by 

 burying in the earth ; and it is pickled with salt and vinegar. 



989. Almost every vegetable of use, as food, in the arts, or as medicine, known to the 

 rest of the world, is cultivated in China, with, perhaps, a very few exceptions of equatorial 

 plants. The bamboo and cocoa-nut tree, as in Hindustan, are in universal use : in- 

 digo is extensively cultivated ; sugar also in the southern provinces, but it is rather 

 a luxury than an article of common consumption. It is used mostly in a coarse 

 granulated form ; but for exportation, and for the upper classes, it is reduced to its 

 crystallised state. Tobacco is every where cultivated, and in universal use, by all ages, 

 and both sexes. Fruits of every kind abound, but they are mostly bad, except the orange 

 and the lee-tchee Dimocarpus Litchi), both of which are probably indigenous. The art 

 of grafting is well known, having been introduced by the missionaries; but they do not 

 appear to have taken advantage cf this knowledge for the improvement of their fruits. 

 They have also an art which enables them to take off bearing branches of fruit, par- 

 ticularly of the orange and peach, and transfer them, in a growing state, to pots, for 

 their artificial rocks and grottos, and summer-houses. It is simply by removing a ring 

 of the bark, plastering round it a ball of earth, and suspending a vessel of water to drop 

 upon it, until the upper edge of the incision has thrown out roots into the earth. 



990. The live stock of Chinese agriculture is neither abundant nor various. The 

 greater part of their culture being on a small scale, and performed by manual operations, 

 does not require many beasts of labour : their canals and boats supply the place of beasts 

 of burden : and their general abstemiousness renders animals for the butcher less neces- 

 sary. They rear, however, though in comparatively small number, all the domestic 

 animals of Europe ; the horse, the ass, the ox, the buffalo, the dog, the cat, the pig; but 

 their horses are small and ill-formed. The camels of China are often no larger than our 

 horses; the other breeds are good, and particularly that of pigs. The kind of dog most 

 common in the south, from Canton to Tong-chin-tcheu, is the spaniel with straight ears. 

 More to the north, as far as Pekin, the dogs have generally hanging ears and slender 

 tails. 



991. The Chinese are exceedingly sparing in the use of animal food. The broad-tailed 

 sheep are kept in the hilly parts of the country, and brought down to the plains ; but 

 the two animals most esteemed, because they contribute most to their own subsistence 

 and are kept at the cheapest rate, are the hog and the duck. "Whole swarms of the 

 latter are bred in large barges, surrounded with projecting stages covered with coops 

 for the reception of these birds, which are taught, by the sound of the whistle, to jump 

 into the rivers and canals in search of food, and by another call to return to their lodg- 

 ings. They are usually hatched by placing their eggs, as the ancient Egyptians were 

 wont to do, in small ovens, or sandbaths, in order that the same female may continue to 

 lay eggs throughout the year, which would not be the case if she had a young brood to 

 attend. The ducks, when killed, are usually split open, salted, and dried in the sun ; in 

 which state they afford an excellent relish to rice or other vegetables. 



992. The wild animals are numerous. Elephants are common in the south of China, 

 and extend as far as the thirtieth degree of north latitude in the province of Kiangnau and 

 of Yun-nau. The unicorn rhinoceros lives on the sides of the marshes in the provinces 

 of Yun-nau and Q.uan-si. The lion, according to Du Halde and Trigault, is a stranger 

 to China ; but the animal figured by Neuhoft', under the name of the tiger, seems to be 

 the manelcss lion known to the ancients, described by Oppian, and seen by M. Olivier on 

 the Euphrates. Marco Polo saw lions in Fo-kien : there were some at the court of Kublai 

 Khan. The true tiger probably shows himself in the most southerly provinces, where 

 there are also various kinds of monkeys ; the long-armed gibbou or Simia longimanus; the 

 Simia inrluens, or ugly baboon ; and the Simia Sylvanus. which mimics the gestures and 

 even the laughter of men. The musk animal, which seems peculiar to the central plateau 

 of Asia, sometimes goes down into the western provinces of China. The deer, the boar, 

 the fox, and other animals, some of which are little known, are found in the forests. 



993. Several of the birds of the country are distinguished for beauty of form and bril- 

 liancy of colour ; such as the gold and silver pheasants, which we see often painted on 

 the Chinese papers, and which have been brought to this country to adorn our aviaries ; 

 also the Chinese teal, remarkable for its two beautiful orange crests. The insects and 

 butterflies are equally distinguished for their uncommon beauty. Silkworms are common, 

 and seem to be indigenous in the country. From drawings made in China, it appears 

 to possess almost all the common fishes of Europe ; and M. Bloch, and M. de Lacepede 

 have made us acquainted with several species peculiar to it. The Chinese gold-fish 



