11*2 EXPEDITION TO JAPAN. 



Figure 12, plate 1, represents the hoe for breaking up hard ground. It resembles more our 

 pick-axe than garden-hoe, though much broader and thinner than the former. This serves 

 the purpose of the spade with us. The ground is afterwards broken up and mellowed by a 

 hand-rake which has four long curved prongs. (See fig. 2, plate 1.) 



The winnowing machine in common use in China is a fac-simile of that hand-machine used 

 in our southern States ; and the question arises, is it original with the Chinese, or adopted ? 

 (See fig. 1, plate 1.) 



The threshing is sometimes conducted in the field at harvest-time, and also at the farm-house, 

 upon cement floors, with bamboo flails. 



Harvest-time in China, as elsewhere, is one of rejoicing. Men, women, and children, all aid 

 in this necessary or pleasant operation ; and chickens and other domestic fowls follow them to 

 the fields to pick up the loose grain that falls to the ground. The reaping of rice is performed 

 with a small reaping-hook, or sickle, which is serrated on its cutting edge. The scythe seems 

 to be unknown to the Celestials. Figure 13, plate 1, represents the sickle. 



The Chinese are exceedingly ingenious in their contrivances for raising water for irrigating 

 I heir fields. The chain-pump arrangement predominates, though various other mechanisms 

 and methods are in use among them. Of the chain-pump there are three kinds or modifications 

 of the same principle. One of these is operated by animal-power, the other two by man-power. 

 The first is provided with a mechanism precisely the same, to all intents and purposes, as the 

 horse-power in use-with our farmers for accelerating the speed of power for threshing, hulling 

 corn, and various other agricultural purposes. This piece of machinery is probably as old as 

 husbandry itself in China, and shows that those people were early acquainted with the fact 

 that power and speed vary inversely, or that power or time is gained according as the moving 

 force is applied near or remote from the axis of a wheel. Plate 2 represents one of these ma- 

 chines, with the chain-pump attached. The pump consists of a hollow trunk formed of boards, 

 having at each end a short axle provided with cogs, over which an endless chain, having a 

 series of buckets upon it, passes. The trough is placed in an inclined position, with one end in 

 the water to be raised. The upper axle being put in motion by its connexion with the power 

 machine, (which is placed on the bank of the canal, river, or pond, and operated by a buffalo 

 yoked thereto,) causes the endless chain to rotate. The buckets retain the water, and raise it 

 to the end of the trough, from whence it flows on to the field. 



The second description of chain-pump is worked by men operating upon a description of tread- 

 mill, with the feet. The upper axle of the endless chain of pumps is extended to a long shaft 

 on either side of the trunk, and provided with short radiating arms, serving as levers for the 

 action of the feet. A rotary motion is thus communicated to the shaft and the endless chain 

 of buckets. (See plate 3.) The other description is worked by a crank in the end of the 

 upper axle of the chain-pump by hand-power. 



Bread is an article of food unknown in China. Eice is the staff of life there. The little 

 flour required for the making of pastry is produced usually by the aid of a small hand-mill ; 

 though rude mills, worked by buffalo-power, are sometimes met with in the country, by which 

 the process of grinding is remarkably slow and imperfect. This domestic mill consists of two 

 stones, the lower one being stationary, and the upper one movable, on the face of the former. 

 This is put in motion by a man or boy, by a connecting rod jointed to a short lever or arm 

 fastened to the periphery cf the upper stone. (See fig. 3, plate 1.) 



A large mill, worked . y buffalo-power, used for grinding bones for manure, beans for making 



