No. 216.] 541 



ble to those who have not seen Chinese industry, and patience, and 

 economy — of their care in cultivation. 



He says " there is hardly a spot of earth which their skill and in- 

 dustry does not force to produce something. Where rice will not 

 grow, they raise the sweet potato, or else it is sugar cane, or straw- 

 berries, or cotton-wood trees, or tallow trees, or laurels — at least, 

 even on the sandiest spots, they rear a stinted pine, which yields a 

 little wood and a little turpentine. The pains which the agrlcultu- 

 turist takes to preserve his crop exceeds belief. If he fears the wind 

 may shake the grain from his ripening rice, he collects several stalks 

 in a bunch, ties them together, and thus makes them render each 

 other a mutual support. He does the same to protect, in exposed 

 places, his sugar cane, and entwines the leaves of those stalks which 

 form the outside or circumference of the bunch." 



He well know^s, too, the value of manure, and nothing that will 

 decay, or can be made to enrich the soil, is lost. Even the barbers 

 carefully save all the beard and hair which they crop from faces and 

 heads, and dispose of it as manure, to the Chinese farmer. What 

 a mine of wealth he would discover in the bearded Apollos of our 

 cities! 



But wnth all this care and all this extent of territory, the demand 

 for food exceeds the supply. The only article which China, unsocial 

 and independent in all other respects, is forced to import, is rice, and 

 of this the government annually stores great supplies, which it dis- 

 tributes in seasons of scarcity. 



We may perhaps, also, take a lesson from China in other things 

 than agriculture, China has been able, for years that no man can 

 number, to live almost wholly independent of the rest of the world. 

 She has been able to do this, because from her great extent of terri- 

 tory, under one strong central government, such, by the way, as is ne- 

 cessary to hold together a very extended realm, she could supply 

 neaily all her own necessities of physical sustenance, and because 

 she early learned the doctrines of protection to home industry, wheth- 

 er agricultural, mechanical or manufacturing. 



It will be long, as I said, before we shall reach the over-peopled 

 condition of China, but in all probability we shall in time, and may 

 we be wise in time, and give to agriculture all that 'attention and all 

 that protection and encouragement which may be necessary to ad- 

 vance it to its highest perfection. 



