420 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



[August, 



for the word "Phlogiston," the projier con- 

 ception of the nature of air, of oxygen, and 

 of the process of combustion ! 



A similar progress, but much more import- 

 ant, and infinitely more beneficial to man, will 

 spring from a correct apprehension of the pro- 

 cess of nutrition in plants and animals. Ab- 

 surd as would now be the attempt of a teacher 

 of chemistry to account for any chemical pro- 

 cess by having recourse to Phlogiston, it is no 

 less inadmissible in a teacher of scientific 

 agriculture to explain a given fact by at- 

 tributing it to "manure;" for, in the place of 

 the obsolete notion of "manure," ivhich hats 

 no hvner any meaning, we have now for every 

 plant certain positively known elements of food, 

 to the united action of which we have to look 

 for an explanation of the fact or phenomenon 

 in question. 



The doctrine which inculcates as necessary 

 for the cultivation of the land, the jiroduction 

 of manure by green crops, and along with 

 this the maintenance of a stock of cattle, is 

 erroneous. 



It is necessary here to distinguish between 

 necissity and irtility. A stock of cattle may 

 prove very useful to the firrnier, and yield him 

 a remunerative return in butter, cheese and 

 meat; but this is (piite a distinct affair from 

 the tillage of his fields, and lie ought to know, 

 and niust be taught, that there is absolutely 

 no compulsion upon him to keep a stock of 

 cattle. 



The Icetpiny of cattle is necessary for the pro- 

 duction of niantire, hut the production of manure 

 is by no means necessary for the fertilization of 

 cornfields. In the system of the rotation of 

 crops, all that is n quired is that green crops 

 should be grown, and that their constituent 

 parts be incorporated with the arable surface 

 soil of the field ; and it is quite immaterial 

 for the cereals, whether the green crops be 

 previously eaten by the cattle and converted 

 into manure or not. 



If lupines, vetches, clover, turnips, &c., are 

 cut up and ploughed in, in the green state, 

 their action is far more powerful. 



There is no natural connection of mutual 

 dependence between the production of corn 

 and that of flesh and cheese : on the contrary, 

 they interfere with each other, and must in 

 science be considered as perfectly distinct and 

 separate things ; for the production and sale 

 of flesh is carried on at the expense of grain, 

 and vice versa. We cannot do without meat, 

 milk, or cheese ; and if the jjroduction of these 

 articles be left entirely to the grazier, who, on 

 his part, ought to meddle as little as jiossible 

 with the growing of grain, both he arid the 

 faimer, as well as the consumer, would profit 

 by it. In England this separation of the two 

 pursuits is gradually gaining ground ; and 

 when, as is to be hojjed, our German farmer 

 shall have succeeded, in the course of time in 

 mastering the multiplication table, we may 

 exjiect that the same separation will take ])lace 

 in Germany. Chemical manufactories are not 

 established anywhere and everywhere, but 

 only in localities offering certain natural ad- 

 vantages ; and agriculture, after all, is simply 

 an industrial pursuit, like any other. 



In China they know nothing of the funda- 

 mental i>rinciples upon wliich German agri- 

 culture is based. Except green manuring, 

 they neither know nor esteem the application 

 of any kind of manure beyond the excrements 

 of man. The other matters occasionally cm- 

 ployed by them to increase their crops, are in 

 quantity and effect utterly insignificant, when 

 compared with the use of human excrements. 



It is quite impossible for us in Europe to 

 form an adequate conception of the great care 

 which is bestowed in China upon the collec- 

 tion of human excrements. In the eyes of the 

 Chinese, these constitute the trae sustenance 

 of the soil (so Davis, Fortune, Hedde, and 

 others tell us), and it is principally to this 

 most energetic agent that they ascribe the ac- 

 tivity and fertility of the earth. 



The Chinese, whoso house is still, what it 

 most probably has ever been, a tent, on^j' that 

 it is built of wood and stone, knows nothing 

 of privies as we have them in our country ; 



but, in their stead, there are found in the 

 ]irinci]ial and most comfortable part of his 

 dwelling, earthenware tubs, or cisterns most 

 carefully constructed of stone and lime ; and 

 the notion of utility so comiilctely prevails 

 over the sense of smell that, as Fortune tells 

 us ("The Tea District of China and India," 

 vol. I., p. 221), "what in every civilized town 

 in Europe would be regarded as a most intoler- 

 able nuisance, is there looked upon by all 

 clas.ses, rich and poor, with the utmost com- 

 placency, and, "he continues, "nothing would 

 cause greater surprise to a Chinese tlian to 

 complain of the stench arising from these re- 

 ceptacles." The Chinese do not disinfect this 

 maniue, but they are pei-fectly aware that it 

 loses part of its fertilizing power by the action 

 of the air, and they, therefore, take great care 

 to guard against evaporation. 



Except the trade in grain, and in articles of 

 food, generally, there is none so extensively 

 carried on in Cliina as that in human excre- 

 ments. Long clumsy boats, which traverse 

 the street canals, collect these matters every 

 day and distribute them over the country. 

 Every Coolie who has brought his produce to 

 market in the morning, carries home at night 

 two pails full of this manure on a bamboo pole. 



The estimation in which it is held is so great 

 that everybody knows the amouut of excre- 

 ment voided per man in a day, month, or 

 year ; and a Chinese would regard, as a gross 

 breach of manners, tlie dejiartnre from his 

 house of a guest who neglects to let him have 

 that advantage to which he deems himself 

 justly entitled in return for his hospitality. 

 The value of the excrements of five people is 

 estimated at two Ten per day, which makes 

 2,t)00 cash* per annum, or about twenty hec- 

 tolitres (440 galls.), at a price of seven florins. 



In the vicinity of large towns these excre- 

 ments are converted into poudrette, which is 

 then sent to the most distant places, in the 

 shape of square cakes, like bricks. For use 

 these cakes are soaked in water and applied 

 in the fluid form. With the exception of his 

 rice fields, the Chinese does not manure the 

 field, but the plant. 



Every substance derived from plants and 

 animals is carefully collected by the Chinese 

 and converted into manure. Oil cakes, horn 

 and bones are highly valued, and so is soot, 

 and more especially ash. To give some liotion 

 of the value set by them upon animal offal, it 

 it will be suflicient to mention that the barbers 

 most carefully collect, and sell as an article of 

 trade, the somewhat considerable amount of 

 hair of the beards and heads of the hundreds 

 of millions of customers whom they daily 

 shave. The Chinese know the action of gyp- 

 sum and lime, and it often happens that tliey 

 renew the plastering of the kitchens for the 

 purpose of making use of the old matter for 

 manure. — (Davis.) 



No Chinese faimer ever sows a seed of corn 

 before it has been soaked in licpiid mantu'e di- 

 luted with water, and has begun to germinate; 

 and experience has taught him (so he asserts,) 

 that this operation not only tends to i)romote 

 the growth and development of the plant, but 

 also to iirotect the seed from the insects in the 

 ground. (Davis.) 



During the summer months, all kinds of 

 vegetable refuse are mixed with turf, straw, 

 grass, peat, weeds, and earth, collected into 

 hea]is, and when quite dry, set on fire ; after 

 several daysof slow combustion, the entire mass 

 is converted into a kind of black earth. This 

 compost is only employed for the manuring of 

 seeds. When seed time arrives, one man makes 

 holes in the ground; another follows with the 

 seed, which he places in the holes; and a third 

 adds this black earth. The young seed jihuited 

 in this manner grows with such extraordinary 

 vigor that it is thereby enabled to push its 

 rootlets through the hard solid soil, and to col- 

 lect its mineral constituents. (Fortune.) 



"The Chinese farmer sows his wheat, after 

 the grains have been soaked in liquid manure, 

 quite close in seed-beds, and afterwards trans- 

 l)lants it. Occasionally, also, the soaked grains 



*100 Caeli arc equal to about ij^d. — (Fortune.) 



are immediately sown in the field properly pre- 

 pared for their reception, at an intei-val of four 

 inches from each other. The time of trans- 

 jilanting is towards the month of December. 

 In March the seed sends up from seven to nine 

 stalks with ears, but the straw is shorter than 

 with us. I have been told that wheat yields 

 120 fold and more, which amply repays the 

 care and labor bestowed upon it. " (Eckeberg, 

 Reiiort to the Academy of Sciences at Stock- 

 holm, 170.').)* 



In Chusan, and the entire rice districts of 

 Chekiang and Keangsoo, two plants are ex- 

 clusively cultivated for tlie purpose of sowing 

 as green manure for the rice fields; the one is 

 a species of Coronilla, clover is the other. 

 Broad furrows, similar to those intended for 

 celery, are made, and the seeds are planted on 

 the ridges in patches, at a distance of five 

 inches from each other. In the course of a few 

 days germination begins, and long before the 

 winter is gone, the entire field is covered with 

 a luxuriant vegetation. In April the plants 

 are plowed in, and decomposition soon begins, 

 attended with a most di.sagreeable odor. This 

 method is adopted in all places where rice is 

 grown. (Fortune, vol. I., p. 238.) 



These extracts, which, from want of space, 

 cannot be further extended, will probably suf- 

 fice to convince the German agriculturist, that 

 his practice, when compared with that of the 

 oldest agricultural nation in the world, stands 

 somewhat in the position of the acts of a child 

 to those of a full-grown and experienced man. 

 The Chinese system of husbandry is the more 

 remarkable, if we take into account what tliey 

 have achieved in other mechanical and chemi- 

 cal pursuits, more incomprehensible, as they 

 owe everything to the purest empiricism. For 

 the Chinese system of instruction has, for 

 thousands of years, so thoroughly excluded 

 every inquiry after an ultimate cause of things, 

 which might possibly have led to the discovery 

 of scientific principles, or to the establishment 

 of a science, that the capability of making 

 further progress, except by imitation, would 

 seem to be destroyed to the very root in that 

 people. The study of the physical laws which 

 has led European nations to the invention of 

 the steam-engine, and of the electric telegraph, 

 and has enabled man to control and turn to 

 his account the forces of nature in mimberless 

 other instances, is a matter of absolute impos- 

 sibility to the Chinese scholar. It is the ex- 

 press command of their first and most ancient 

 teacher of religion, Confucius, that the student 

 shall never allow any thought to arise in his 

 mind but such as he finds written in his books. 



It is quite true that what suits one people 

 may not on that account suit all countries and 

 all nations; but one great and incontroverti- 

 ble truth may, at all events, be learned from 

 Chinese agriculture, viz.: that the fields of 

 the Chinese cultivator have preserved their 

 fertility unimpaired, and in continued vigor 

 ever since the day of Abraham, and of the 

 building of the first Pyramid in Egypt.f This 

 result we also learn has been attained solely 

 and simply by the restitution to the soil of the 



*Tlic Drcsileti. Jonrnal, of Ifith September, lS.5fi, 

 contains tlie followiiifi: statement: " As we are in- 

 formed from Eiljeiistouk, forest inspector Thiersch, of 

 that place, has for several years past made very suc- 

 cessful experiments in transplantine: M'inter corn in 

 autumn. He transplanted the young plants intended 

 for the purjjose in tlie middle of Octolicr, one peck of 

 seed corn to one liundred square rods of ground, 

 whicli produced an uncommonly rich crop. There 

 were roots from which sprune: as many as fifty-one 

 stalks witli ears, anil the latter contained as many as 

 one hundred grains." 



I have ajjpiicd to Mr. F J. Thiersch for more pre- 

 cise details of his ex]ieriment6; and from his state- 

 ment as to the cost of the operation and the return 

 made, there appears to be no doubt that the Chinese 

 mode of husliandry miffht also be resorted to with ad- 

 vantage in Europe, in localities where the land is rich 

 and labor aliundant. One of my friends, who visited 

 M. Thiersch's experimental field, told me that he had 

 counted twenty-one stalks with full ears on a plant 

 pulled up at hazard (not picked out.) Forpoor fields 

 this metliod of cultivation is entirely unsuited. 



t Vessels of Chinese porcelain are found in the 

 pyramids of the same shape, and with the same 

 chiiractcrs of writing on them, as are made in China 

 at the present day. 



