238 
WANDERINGS IN CHINA. 
Chap. XIV. 
manure ; the one is a species of Coronilla, the other is 
Trefoil, or clover. Large ridges, not unlike those on 
which gardeners grow celery, are thrown up on the wet 
rice-fields in the autumn, and the seeds of the plants are 
dropped in, in patches at five inches apart, on the surface 
of the ridges. In a few days germination commences, 
and long before the winter is past the tops of the ridges 
are covered with luxuriant herbage. This goes on 
growing until April, when it is necessary to prepare the 
ground for the rice. The ridges are then levelled, and 
the manure-plants are scattered in a fresh state over the 
surface of the ground. The fields are flooded, and the 
plough and harrow are employed to turn up and pul- 
verise the soil. The manure thus scattered over the 
ground, and half-buried amongst mud and water, com- 
mences to decay immediately, and gives out a most 
disagreeable putrid smell. This mode of manuring is 
generally adopted in all the rice-lands in this part of 
China, and the young paddy doubtless derives strong 
nourishment from the ammonia given out in the decom- 
position of this fresh manure. 
Firewood is so scarce in the country that a great 
portion of the straw, cotton-stalks, and grass, which 
would go to manure the fields, are used for firing, and 
therefore the plan of growing manure for the 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 
