1 62 
TA-FEW. 
concealment, being merely open sheds, with a rail-way over the 
necessary reservoir, and seldom without several occupiers. 
The proprietors of these establishments derive great profit from 
the sale of their contents, called by them ta-few, which they use 
extensively as a manure. It is prepared in several ways. Some- 
times it is mixed with a large quantity of mould, and made into 
cakes. In forming these, a layer of a few inches in thickness is 
spread out in the open air on an even surface, and, when dry, is 
divided into pieces of the requisite dimensions, generally about a 
foot square. These, which it is asserted not only lose the odour 
of their principal ingredient, but acquire that of the violet, are 
conveyed all over the empire, and find a ready sale. Before 
being used, they are dissolved in large quantities of water, or broken 
into small pieces, and are then applied to the land. When, however, 
the ta-few is to be employed near the place in which it is accumulated, 
a different mode of preparing it is pursued and generally preferred. 
In pits lined with plaster, it is diluted with a large proportion of 
water, and suffered to remain several days before it is used. It 
is then either poured into small channels that traverse the fields 
in every direction, or applied directly to the roots of the plants, or 
scattered over them with a small bucket. For its more convenient 
distribution, the peasantry have usually a tub for its reception sunk 
in the centre of their small gardens, in the neighbourhood of their 
cottages. To the use of this manure is in a good measure to be 
attributed the surprising productiveness of small plots of ground 
about Chinese huts, especially in their favourite vegetable the 
Petsai. It is not, however, confined to this plant, but largely 
used in their cotton fields, to young plants of which it is applied 
in considerable quantities. That it is used also in their rice- 
grounds, and in all cases in which manure is required, there can 
be little doubt. 
A writer* has observed respecting the latter mode of preparing 
# Memoires concernant les Chinois, tom. ii. p. 613. 
