APPENDIX. xa 



** A Chfncfe laborer cculd not but fmile, if you informed 

 him that the earth has occafiin k)rrepofeat a certain fixed period cf 

 time. — The Chinefe lands in general are not fuperior to ours : Ycu fee 

 there a? with us, fome excel lent grounds, others nriiddling, the reft bad ; 

 fome foils (Irong, others light ; lands where clay, and lands where fand, 

 gravel, and flints every where predominate. All thefe grounds even in ' 

 the northern provinces, yield annually two crops ; and in thofe towards 

 the fouthj'five in two years; without one fingle fallow feafon, during ihs 

 ihoufands of years that they have been converted to the ufes of agricul- 

 ture.— The Chinefe ofe the fame manures as we do, in order to reftore t3 

 their grounds thofe falts and juices which an unremitting produftion is 

 perpetually confuining. They are acquainted with marl : they en:iploy 

 alfo coraiTiOn fait, lime, afhes, and all forts of animal dung, but above all 

 that [namely human] which we throw into our rivers : they make great 

 ofe of urine, which is carefully preferved in evt^iy houfe and fold to the beS: 

 advantage : in a word, every thing produced by the earth is rcconveyed 

 to it with the greateft care into whatever (hape the operations of nature or 

 art may have transformed if. ■ When their manures are at any time fcarc?, 

 they fupply the deficisncy by tutning up the ground with the fpade to a 

 great depth ; which brings up to the furface * * a new foil, enriched wlih 

 she juices of that which defcends in its roomf . 



Without ixeidows, the Chinefe maintain a number of horfes, buSalofj, 

 and other aninals of every fpecies for labor, for fuftenance, and for ma- 

 nure. Thefe animals are fed fome with ftraw ; others with roots, bean^, 

 and grain of every kind. * * * 



The tDoU reeky hjil?, which in France and other places they turn in- 

 to vineyards or totally negled, are there compelled by dint of induRry io 

 produce grain. The Chmcfcare acqaainred indeed with the vine, whica 

 here and there they plant in arbors ; but they * * would imagioG it a fia 

 againft humanity to enc'eavcr to procure by cultivation an agreeable li* 

 qjor, whiift from the want of that grain which this vineyard might have 

 produced, fome individual perhaps might be in danger of perifhing with 

 hunger. 



The fteepell mountains even are rendered accefUlIe. At Csntcn and 

 froni one extremity of the empire to another, you obferve mountains cus 

 info terraces j reprefenting at a diftance iramenfe pyramids divided into 

 dilTerent ^--igts, which feem to reai their heads to heaven. Every one oi 

 thsfe terraces yields anni:aily a crop of fome kind of grain, even of rice ; 

 and you cannot with-hold your admiration, when you behold the water of 

 the river, the caaa], or the fountain, which glides by the foot of the moun- 

 lainj raifed from terrace to terrace even to the fumn>it, by means of a fun- 

 pie portable raachii^e which two men vviih eafe, tiaaSoQii and put iii mQ" 

 lion, * * * '9^ 



The 



i This ii like the method Jo much talked of in ths Enghjh Mofeum Rufli- 

 <um, to cure the ** fubfidence of chalk," or the drfc^nt biiovj t!;e J:r/a<t 

 »f 'hi partidss ofchs(k sm^lojed far maums^ E^ 



