CiiAP. XIV. 
CHINESE AGRICULTURE. 
221 
CHAPTER XIV. 
Chinese Agriculture — Exaggerated Statements regarding its Ad- 
vancement — Soil of the Hills — Tea-Land — Soil of the Plains 
— Summer Crops — Rice and its Cultivation — Chinese Plough 
and Harrow — Number of Crops produced — Method of obtaining 
two Crops of Rice in Summer in the Province of Chekiang' — 
Rice Harvest — Terrace Cultivation described — The' Teinching 
Plant, from which the Northern Indigo is obtained — Summer 
Hill Crops — Cultivation of sweet Potatoes — Earth-nuts — 
Winter Crops — Celebrated Shan-tung Cabbage — Oil Plant — 
Wheat, Barley, &c. — Ripening of Winter Crops — Manures — 
Two Plants cultivated for this Purpose — Their Cultivation and 
Mode of Application — A Manure for mixing with Seeds — Its 
Utility — Other Manures in common Use — Manure Tanks — 
Night Soil and Urine — Mode of Application — Succession and 
Rotation of Crops. 
The prof ession of agr iculture in China has been highly 
honoured and encouraged by the government of the 
country, from the earhest times down to the present day. 
The husbandman ranks higher here than he does in any 
other country in the world, and the emperor himself 
marks his sense of the importance of agriculture by 
engaging in its operations at the commencement of 
every season. In his character of " Son of Heaven," or 
mediator between the gods and his subjects, he devotes 
three days to solemn fasting and prayer, after which he 
proceeds to a field, and with his own hands holds the 
