222 
WANDERINGS IN CHINA. 
Chap. XIV. 
plough, and throws a portion of the rice-seed into the 
ground, thus showing the importance which government 
attaches to industry in the cultivation of the earth, that 
there may be plenty on the land to supply the wants of 
the teeming population. 
The progress and advancement of the Chinese in 
agriculture as an art has been, however, greatly exagge- 
rated by many who have adverted to this subject in their 
writings. The Chinese government has been always so 
jealous of foreigners entering the country, that those who 
were probabl}^ able to form a correct opinion on the 
subject were prevented from doing so, and were led 
away by the fertility of their imaginations ; while, on the 
other hand, the Roman Catholic missionaries who tra- 
velled and resided in the interior were evidently ignorant 
of the art itself, as well as of the progress it had made 
in other countries. But it must also be borne in mind 
that, whilst agriculture has been advancing rapidly 
towards perfection amongst the nations of the western 
world, the Chinese in this, as with most other things, 
have remained stationary, and hence there must be 
a much greater disparity between us and them now than 
there was when the early writers upon China published 
their works. To these writers, and more particularly to 
those who kept on faithfully copying their works, we 
must attribute the erroneous opinions which have been 
generally held by us in everything relating to the 
agriculture of the Chinese. I have no doubt that, as a 
nation, they surpass the natives of India and other half- 
civilised states in this art, as they do in most other 
peaceful accomplishments ; but it is ridiculous, now, at 
