302 
WHEAT-CROP INCREASED BY AMMONIACAL MANURES. 
other place in the neighborhood, where he expects 
to be more successful. 
A situation on the hill-side is also considered of 
great importance, especially if it commands a view 
of a beautiful bay or lake. But I believe that of all 
places the one most coveted is where a winding 
stream, in its course, passes and then returns again 
to the foot of the hill where the grave is to be 
made. The director of the ceremonies, with a 
compass in his hand, settles the direction in which 
the body is to lie, which is another point of great 
importance. An intelligent Chinese, with whom I 
was acquainted, informed me that this fortune-teller 
of the dead is often very eloquent in his de¬ 
scriptions of the future happiness of those who 
obey his directions ; he informs them that they or 
their children, or some one in whom they are much 
interested, shall enjoy riches and honors in after 
life, as a reward for the attention and respect they 
have paid to the remains of their fathers; that as 
the stream which they then behold when standing 
around their father’s grave flows and returns again 
in its windings, so shall their path through life be 
smooth and pleasant until they sink into the tomb 
hoary with years, respected, beloved, and mourned 
b}' their children. 
In my travels in the south of China I often came 
upon graves in the most retired places amongst the 
hills; they were all more or less of the same form, 
namely, a half-circle cut out of the hill-side, having 
the body interred behind it. Sometimes, indeed 
generally, there vrere several of these half-circles 
with a succession of terraces in front of the grave ; 
and in the burying-places of the more wealthy, the 
semi-circles were built of brick or stone, and on a 
more extensive scale. In the centre of the semi¬ 
circle, and of course near the body, the gravestone 
is placed with its inscription. M. Callery, an excel¬ 
lent Chinese scholar, informed me that these inscrip¬ 
tions are always of the most simple kind, merely 
stating the name of the deceased, that he died in 
such a dynasty, in such a year. This is the plain 
and unflattering tale which the Chinese tombstone 
tells. In some instances—I cannot tell if in all— 
after the body has decayed, the bones are dug up, 
and carefully put into earthenware vessels, which 
are then placed on the hill-side aboveground. 
I was once or twice in the wild mountain dis¬ 
tricts in the interior, at the time when the natives 
visited the tombs. Even the most retired parts had 
their visitors, and it was both pleasing and affecting 
to see the little groups assembled round the graves, 
paying the tribute of affection to those whose 
memory they revered and loved. The widow was 
seen kneeling by the grave of her lost husband; 
children, often very young, shedding tears of sor¬ 
row for a father or mother; and, sometimes, an old 
man whose hair was white with age, was there 
mourning the loss of those whom he had looked to 
as the support of his declining years. All were 
cutting the long grass and weeds which were 
growing round the tombs, and planting their favor¬ 
ite flowers to bloom and to decorate the.m. 
I believe that the wealthy in these districts gene¬ 
rally bury their dead, and some of them build very 
chaste and beautiful tombs. There are three or 
four very fine ones in the island of Chusan, where 
the paving in front of the mound which contains 
the body is beautiful, and the carving elaborate; 
the whole of the stone-work is square, instead of 
circular as in the tombs in the south of China. 
Here, as at home—and I believe in every part of 
the world—trees of the pine-tribe are generally 
planted in the burying-grounds. Lord Jocelyn, in 
his “ Campaign in China,” mentions such places in 
the following beautiful and appropriate language: 
—“ Here and there as if dropped at random upon 
the sides of the hills, were clumps of pine-trees, 
and peeping through their thick foliage, the roofs of 
houses and temples diversified the scene. Amongst 
many of the beautiful groves of trees wlwch here 
invite the wanderer to repose, spots are selected as 
the resting-places of mortality; and gazing on 
those tranquil scenes, where the sweet clematis and 
fragrant flowers help to decorate the last home of 
man, the most careless eye cannot fail to mark the 
beauties of the grave.” 
The flowers which the Chinese plant on or 
among the tombs are simple and beautiful in their 
kind. No expensive camellias, moutans, or other 
of the finer ornaments of the garden are chosen for 
this purpose. Sometimes the conical mound of 
earth,—when the grave is of this kind,—is crown¬ 
ed with a large plant of fine, tall, waving grass ; at 
Ningpo wild roses are planted, which soon spread 
themselves over the grave, and when their flowers 
expand in spring, cover it with a sheet of pure 
white. At Shanghae a pretty bulbous plant, a 
species of Lycoris, covers the graves in autumn 
with masses of brilliant purple. When I first dis¬ 
covered the Anemone japonica, it was in full flower 
amongst the graves of the natives, w T hich are round 
the ramparts of Shanghae ; it blooms in November, 
when other flowers have gone b 3 r , and is a most ap¬ 
propriate ornament to the last resting-places of the 
dead. 
WHEAT-CROPS INCREASED BY AMMONI¬ 
ACAL MANURES. 
On a space of ground cultivated in 1843, by 
Mr. J. B. Lawes, of Rothamsted, England, which 
had not been manured, the yield per acre was 161 
bushels of wheat, and 1,116 lbs. of straw. This 
may be considered as the natural produce of the soil, 
subject only to the atmospheric influence of that 
particular season. The same space of ground was 
cultivated and manured for three consecutive years, 
with the following results :— 
In 1844, the application of 560 lbs. of burnt bones 
and 220 lbs. of silicate of potass, produced 16 bush¬ 
els of wheat and 1,112 lbs. of straw. 
In 1845, Ik cwt. each, of sulphate and muriate 
of ammonia, produced 311 bushels of wheat and 
4,266 lbs. of straw. 
In 1846, 2 cwt. of sulphate of ammonia yielded 
271 bushels of wheat and 2,244 lbs. of straw. 
In another experiment, a quantity of farm-yard 
manure was weighed into two portions, at the rate 
of 14 tons each per acre, one being burnt to ashes, 
and the other plowed into the soil; the product of the 
unburnt dung was 22 bushels of wheat and 1,476 lbs. 
of straw ; and that of the ash, 16 bushels of wheat 
and 1,104 lbs. of straw. 
Hence the absolute necessity of supplying nitrogen 
(the essential part of ammonia), to enable the soil to 
| produce more wheat than it could do in a natural state. 
