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III. On the State of Chinese Horticulture and Agriculture ; 

 with an Account of several Esculent Vegetables used in 

 China. By John Livingstone, Esq. Corresponding 

 Member of the Horticultural Society, at Macao. 



Read October 2, 1821, 



The statement in the Encyclopcedia Britannica, that 

 " Chinese agriculture is distinguished and encouraged by 

 the Court beyond all other sciences," is incorrect, since it is 

 unquestionably subordinate to literature; and it may be 

 well doubted whether it ought to be considered as holding 

 among the Chinese the rank of a science ; for, independently 

 of that routine which has been followed, with little variation, 

 from a very high antiquity, they seem to be entirely ignorant 

 of all the principles by which it would have been placed on a 

 scientific foundation. 



Chinese Horticulture may be considered to be in a state 

 precisely similar to that of their Agriculture. Indeed, we 

 hear of no attempts having been made to improve either, in 

 the Pekin Gazette, an official periodical publication, in which 

 all notices relative to any variation or change of their prac- 

 tices are made public ; and from its silence, I am inclined to 

 infer that no improvement is even contemplated. The fol- 

 lowing circumstance places the Chinese regard of Horticul- 

 tural improvements in a just point of view, and accords 

 entirely with all the facts which have fallen under my obser- 



vol. v. H 



Mo. Bot. Garden. 



1SC7. 



