Chap. XIV. 
CHINESE PLOUGH. 
227 
the hot months, besides another crop of some more hardy 
vegetables in winter. 
The ground is prepared in spring for the first crop of 
rice as soon as the winter green-crops are removed from 
the fields. The plough, which is commonly drawn by a 
buffalo or bullock, is a rude implement, but probably 
answers the purpose much better than ours would, which 
has been found to be too heavy and unmanageable for 
the Chinese.* As the land is always flooded with water 
before it is ploughed, this operation may be described as 
the turning up a layer of mud and water, six or eight 
inches deep, which lies on a solid floor of hard stiff clay. 
The plough never goes deeper than this mud and water, 
and consequently the ploughman and his bullock in 
wading through the field find a solid footing at this 
depth below the surface. The water-buffalo generally 
employed in the south is well adapted for this work, as 
he delights to wallow amongst the mud, and is often 
found swimming and amusing himself in the canals on 
the sides of the rice-fields. But it seems a most dis- 
agreeable and unhealthy operation for the poor labourer, 
who nevertheless goes along cheerful and happy. After 
the plough comes the harrow : this is chiefly used to 
break and pulverise the surface of the soil or to bury the 
manure. Hence it has not long perpendicular teeth 
like ours ; but the labourer stands upon the top of it, 
and presses it down upon the muddy soil while it is 
drawn along. The object of both plough and harrow is 
not only to loosen the earth, but to mix up the whole 
* Several of our ploughs have been sent out to China, and offered 
to the native farmers gratis, but they will not use them. 
