Cuar. XVI] APPLICATION OF MANURES. 309 
land is forced upon the farmers by necessity. The 
plan of using manure in a fresh state, instead of 
allowing it first to decay, has doubtless been found 
from long experience to be the best for the young 
paddy. The Chinese farmer is not a chemist; he 
knows little or nothing of vegetable physiology, but 
his forefathers have hit accidentally upon certain 
systems which are found in practice to succeed, and 
to these he himself adheres, and hands them down 
unchanged to his children. 
When the first crop of rice is cut, the second, 
which has been planted in the alternate rows, is 
left to grow and ripen in the autumn; the ground 
is stirred up, and the stubble and part of the straw 
of the first crop is immediately worked up with the 
mud and water between the rows: this decays in 
the same manner as the trefoil in spring, and af- 
fords manure to the second crop. Prawns and fish 
of various kinds are frequently used for the same 
purpose and in the same way. 
Burnt earth mixed with decomposed vegetable 
matter is another highly esteemed manure, and is 
common in all the agricultural districts. During the 
summer months all sorts of vegetable rubbish are 
collected in heaps by the road-sides, and mixed with 
straw, grass, parings of turf, &c., which are set on 
fire and burn slowly for several Sig until all the 
rank vegetable matter is decomposed, and the whole 
reduced to a rich black earth. It is then turned 
over several times, when it presents the same ap- 
pearance as the vegetable mould used in gardens 
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