AGRICULTURE OF LEW CHEW. 35 



pounds, but becoming very fat ; not loose and soft, as in tlie Cbina pig, but well laid on and 

 compact. While young, they are ill-kept and ugly ; but are well shaped when grown, with 

 straight backs and bellies, good heads and bodies, and short legs. The introduction of a few 

 pairs of these might be desirable in the United States, though less necessary from the number of 

 China pigs already there. Pork appears to be the chief or only animal food for the people of 

 Lew Chew. It is preserved by salting. The domestic fowl is raised, and in considerable num- 

 bers, but the consumption of it is probably confined to the upper ranks. 



Manures, — seem to be assiduously collected and applied. It is furnished by the stables, cow- 

 houses, pig-pens, and the compost holes in the fields. The animals being all soiled, large 

 quantities ought to be obtained. Whether it is well preserved, or in what manner, cannot be 

 stated. How night-soil is disposed of is not known ; certainly it does not obtrude itself on the 

 senses, as it does in China, nor is it applied in the same way. It is doubtless used in some way, 

 by a people who avail themselves of every practicable spot for culture ; and, perhaps, it is done 

 in a compost. 



Beside the retention and use of the alluvium, already spoken of, the lighter uplands are top- 

 dressed with stiff clay from bottoms near by. This I saw near the centre of the island. Also, 

 on an alluvial flat, where a stream falls into the sea, and which is subject to overflows by salt 

 water, the following operation was witnessed : Large ditches had been cut chequerwise through 

 it, to draw off the superfluous water, and, the intermediate spaces being dried, the earth was 

 being removed and spread upon the adjoining fields. 



Timber and fuel. — Most of the accessible primitive forests have been exhausted. Some cypress 

 (taxodium distichum?) and hard woods are yet found in the glens. The present growth on 

 uncultivated land seems to be pine and chapparel, i. e., brush-wood of various kinds. Tine 

 of two kinds (pinus palustris? and P. Strobus) appears to be the chief material for timber and 

 fuel. It is transplanted on each side of public roads, affording shady avenues in the heats of 

 summer ; and each one being cut when matured, it serves for timber. Trees of all ages are. 

 thus found intermixed. It also borders certain open and level grounds found in populous 

 neighborhoods, which seem to be designed as arenas for athletic exercises and games. These 

 are some two hundred yards long, and some twenty or thirty wide, and, being perfectly level, 

 are well adapted to racing, whether on horse or foot, wrestling, &c, and to ball-playing. 

 This is probably a favorite amusement, as very many balls, highly decorated with bright- 

 colored threads, were offered in the markets upon their New Year's Eve; and my carriers, 

 happening to meet with one in the road, amused themselves for some time by keeping it going 

 with their feet. The oldest and finest specimens of pines are around these places. It is also 

 planted on lands exhausted of grain-forming materials by previous cropping, and in poorer 

 districts, and is cut for fuel when four or six inches in diameter. This affords "rest" to the 

 land, which is more or less renovatedby the chemical changes effected within it in the course 

 of years. Besides, though not generally known, the pollen of pine contains more phosphorus 

 in it, brought up from the subsoil by long tap-roots, than any other vegetable substance; and 

 thus a pine forest is one of the very best renovators of land — phosphorus being essential to 

 grain-growing crops. Moreover, it is grown on rocky ridges, in some rich groves, &c. The 

 pine seems to be sacred or reverenced, as was the miseltoe of old ; all the villages, boats, and 

 junks being ornamented at their New Year with its evergreen boughs. Other fuel is the dry 

 sugar-cane and leaves, dry brushwood, coarse grass, &c; and, being scarce, it is used most 

 economically in small, well-shaped, fuel-saving furnaces. 



