APPENDIX. NOTES. 397 



a population, never diminished by foreign wars, greatly 

 exceeding that of any other country, whose numbers have 

 only been diminished occasionally by famine, by devas- 

 tating inundations and unfavourable seasons, from which 

 nothing can altogether insure a people. The nations I 

 allude to are China and Japan. We are informed, in the 

 Account of Lord Macartney's Embassy, that in the former 

 of these countries, " Every square mile contains upon an 

 average one third more inhabitants, being upwards of three 

 hundred, than are found upon an equal quantity of land, 

 also upon an average, in the most populous country in 

 Europe." 1 The population of the latter is also stated to be 

 prodigious. 2 The encouragement of Agriculture appears 

 to be the sole mean which enables these countries to main- 

 tain so vast a mass of population. In China, it is stated, 

 that the whole surface of the country is dedicated to the 

 production of food for man alone, that even the steepest 

 mountains are brought into cultivation ; they are cut into 

 terraces, and the water that runs at their feet is raised by 

 chain-pumps, worked each by two men, from terrace to 

 terrace, to irrigate them ; and steep and barren places are 

 not suffered to run waste, but are planted with pines and 

 larches. 3 A similar account is given of the state of agri- 

 culture in Japan, where attention to it is enjoined by the 

 laws as one of the most essential duties ; and if any one 

 leaves his land uncultivated his more active neighbour 

 may take possession of it. In both these countries no 

 article that can possibly be used as manure is wasted, so 

 that the soil and crops have every possible attention of 

 this kind. 4 Malte-Brun has given a very interesting 



1 Macartney Embassy by Sir G. Staunton, iii. 388. 



2 Malte-Brun. Syst. ofGeogr. Asia II. ii. 533. E. T. 



3 Macartney Embass. iii. 386. Malte-Brun. Asia, 560. 

 * Thumb. Japan, iv. 82. Malte-Brun. 561. 



