546 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



[No. 



wrote on this subject ; our common laborers are 

 acquainted wilh it; but how much must our Eu- 

 ropean farmers be surprised, when they are in- 

 formed that (he Chinese have no meadows, natu- 

 ral or artificial, and have not the least conception 

 of fallowing, never allowing their lands the slight- 

 est repose. 



The Chinese laborer would consider meadows, 

 of every denomination, as lands in a state ol' na- 

 ture : they sow their lands all with grain, andgive 

 the preference to such grounds as we geneially 

 lay out in meatlows, which, lying low and being 

 properly situated with respect to water, are conse- 

 quently by far the most iertile. They affirm that 

 a field sown wiih grain, will yield as much straw 

 lor the nourishment of cattle, as it would have pro- 

 duced of hay, besides the additional advantage of 

 grain for the sustenance of man, of which they can 

 spare too, in plentiful seasons, a small portion for 

 the animal creation. 



Such is the system adhered to from one extrem- 

 ity of the empire to the other, and confirmed by 

 the experience of four thousand years, amongst a 

 people, of all the nations of the world, the most at- 

 tentive to their interest. That which must render 

 this plan of agriculture the more inconceivable to 

 Europeans, is the idea of their never allowing 

 their lands to lie one season unlabored. Those 

 who for some years have endeavored, with such 

 public spirited zeal, to re-animate amongst us this 

 neglected art, have considered as the first arid 

 most imporiant object, the nmltipiicalion of artifi- 

 cial meadows, to supply the defect of natural ones, 

 for the fiittening of cattle ; without once ventuririir 

 to think of suppressing the mode of fallowing the 

 grounds, however fiir they carried their system of 

 increasing the number of artificial pastures. 



This sys!em, which appears the most plausible 

 of any they have projected, and is received with 

 the greatest partialit}^ by our farmers, is, neverthe- 

 less, contradicted by the experience of the greatest 

 and the most ancient land-laboring nation in the 

 world, who regard the practice of meadows, and 

 ftillowing grounds, as an abuse, destructive of 

 plenty and population, which are theonly impoi- 

 ant objects of agriculture. 



A Chinese laborer could not but smile, if you 

 informed him that the earth has occasion lor re- 

 pose at a certain fixed period of time ; he certainly 

 would say, that we deviated greatly fl-om the pouit 

 in view, could he read our treatises, ancient and 

 modern — our marvellous speculations on agricul- 

 ture. What would he say, if he saw our lands, 

 part of them fallow, |)art of them employed in use- 

 less cultures, and the remainder wretchedly labor- 

 ed. What would he say, what must be his feel- 

 ings, if, in travelling over our fields, he observed 

 the extreme misery and barbarism of their wretch- 

 ed cultivators ? 



Tlte Chinese lands, in general, are not su|)erior 

 to ours; you see tluin?, as with us, some excellent 

 grounds, otiiers middling, the rest bad ; some soils 

 etrong, others light; lands where clay, and lands 

 where sand, gravel, and flints every where pre- 

 dominate. 



All these grounds, ev-en in the i;or(horn provin- 

 ces, yield annually two crops, and in those towards 

 the south, often five in two years, without one sin- 

 gle fallow season, (hiring the many thousands of 

 years that they have been converted to the pur- 

 poees of agriculture. 



The Chinese use the same manures as we do, 

 in order to restore to their grounds those salts and 

 juices, which an unintermitting production is per- 

 petually consuming. They are acquainted with 

 marl ; they employ also common salt, lime, ashes, 

 and all sorts of animal dung, but above all, that 

 which we throw into the rivers ; they make great 

 use of urine, which is carefully preserved in-every 

 house, and sold to advantage. In a word, every 

 thing produced by the earth is re-conveyed to it 

 with tiie greatest care, into whatever shape the 

 operations of nature or art may have transformed it. 



When their manures are at any time scarce, 

 they supply the deficiency, by turning upLthe 

 ground with the spade, to a great depth, which 

 brings up to the surface of the field a new soil, en- 

 riched with the juices of that which descends in 

 its room. 



Without meadows, the Chinese m.aintain a num- 

 ber of horses, buffaloes, and other animals of eve- 

 ry species necessary for labor, for sustenance and 

 for manure. These animals are fed, some wilh 

 straw, some with roots, beans, and grain of every 

 kind. It is true they have fcnver horses, and horn- 

 ed cattle, ill proportion, than we have, yet it is not 

 necessary they should have more. 



The whole country is cut into canals, dug by 

 the industry of the inhabitants, extending from 

 river to river, which divide and water this vast 

 empire, like a garden. Travelling, transporting 

 of goods, almost every species of carriage, is per- 

 formed on these canals, with great ease and snudl 

 expense ; they do not even use horses to drag their 

 boats ; every thing is done by the stiil or the oar, 

 which they manage with sinjjular dexterity, even 

 in going up tlie rivers. Where any kind of labor 

 can be performed at a moderate price by men, it is 

 a maxim with them never to employ anmials. In 

 consequence of this the banks of their canals are 

 cultivated almost to the water's edge, they lose 

 not an inch of ground : their public roads resem- 

 ble our foot paths ; their canals, however, are in- 

 finitely more useful than highways; ihey con- 

 vey fertility every where, and furnish the people 

 great part of their subsistence in fisrh. There is no 

 comparison between the weight which can be 

 transported in a boat, and that which can be con- 

 veyed in any kind of land carriage ; no proportion 

 between the expense. 



The Chinese are still less acquainted with the 

 use, or rather the luxury of chariots, and equipa- 

 ges of every kind, which crowd the principal cities 

 of Europe. The horses necessary (or these, as- 

 sembled in thousands in our capitals, consume the 

 produce of miniberless acres of our best grounds, 

 which, if cultivated with grain, would afibrd sub- 

 sistence for miiliiiudes, who are dying of hunger. 

 The Chinese wish rather to maintain men than 

 horses. 



The emperor and chief majyistrates are carried 

 through the cities hymen, witli safety imd with 

 dignity; their march is sedate and niajeslic, it 

 threatens not with danger those who walk on foot; 

 they travel in a kind of galleys, safer, more com- 

 modious, equally magnificent and less expensive 

 than our land equipages. 



I have lielbre observed that the Chinese lose not 

 an inch of ground. 'J'he}' arc very far, therefore, 

 fi'om allotting immense jiarks, of the finest ground, 

 for the mainfainance alone of deer, in contempt of 

 the human race. The emperors, even those of 



