AGRICULTURE 0E THE CHINESE--NO. 1. 
17 
AGRICULTURE OP THE CHINESE.—No. 1. I 
On page 205 , vol. vi. of the Agriculturist, in our 
notice of Fortune’s “ Three Years’ Wanderings in 
the Northern Provinces of China,” we proposed to 
publish from that work, in a condensed form, in two 
series of articles, one to be headed the “ Domestic 
Flora of China,” and the other the “ Agriculture of 
the Chinese.” The first of these series was conclud¬ 
ed in our December number—the latter herewith com¬ 
mences, and will be continued through the present 
year. Mr. Fortune, it will be remembered, was 
sent to China by the London Horticultural Society, 
in 1843 , for the purpose of obtaining new plants of 
an ornamental and useful character, with instruc¬ 
tions to give every possible attention to the horti¬ 
culture and agriculture of that wonderful country. 
The result of his observations was published, in 
England, a few months ago under the title above 
mentioned, which, in addition to the usual topics 
♦reated of by travellers, contains a large amount of 
reliable information on agriculture and its kindred 
subjects never before offered to the public. 
The profession of agriculture in China has been 
highly honored and encouraged by the government 
of the country, from the earliest times down to the 
present day. The husbandman ranks higher here 
than he does in any other country in the world, and 
the emperor himself marks his sense of the impor¬ 
tance of agriculture, by engaging in its operations 
at the commencement of every season. In his 
character of t; Son of Heaven,” or mediator 
between the gods and his subjects, he devotes 
three days to solemn fasting and prayer, after which 
he proceeds to a field, and with his own hands holds 
the plow, 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 
exaggerated 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 probably able to 
form a correct opinion on the subject were pre¬ 
vented 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 ad¬ 
vancing rapidly towards perfection amongst the 
nations of the Western World, the Chinese in this, 
as with most other things, have remained station¬ 
ary, and hence there must be a much greater dis¬ 
parity 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 every thing re¬ 
lating to the agriculture of the Chinese. I have no 
doubt that, as a nation, they surpass the natives of 
India and other half-civilized States in this art, as 
they do in most other peaceful accomplishments. 
In order, however, that the reader may form an 
I opinion for himself, I will describe in detail what 
| passed under my own eye connected with this sub¬ 
ject, during my travels of nearly three years in the 
country. In that space of time I had an opportu¬ 
nity of seeing repeatedly the various methods of 
cultivation and their results, both in the north and 
in the south ; all of which were carefully noted in 
my journal at the time. I will begin with the 
southern provinces. These are, of course, tropical, 
and differ from those in the north in many respects, 
both with regard to soil and the nature of the plants 
cultivated. 
Soil. —The soil of the mountains in the south of 
China is of the poorest description. Rocks of 
granite are seen everywhere protruding themselves 
above the scanty vegetation, whilst the soil itself 
is composed of dry burnt clay mixed with particles 
of granite in a decaying or disintegrated state. This 
soil naturally so poor, is kept so by the practice of 
periodically cutting and carrying off the long grass 
and stunted bushes for firewood. Sometimes the 
natives set fire to this upon the mountains, for the 
purpose of affording a scanty manure, but never¬ 
theless the soil is miserably sterile. Almost all the 
hilly portions of the south of China are in a state of 
nature “ stern and wild,” where the hand of man 
never attempts agricultural operations, and where 
it is almost impossible he ever can. Here and 
there, near the base of the hills, the far-famed ter¬ 
race cultivation may be seen, where the natives 
grow small patches of rice and other vegetables, 
such as sweet potatoes and earth nuts, but the por¬ 
tion of land in this part of the country used for 
such purposes, bears but an extremely small pro¬ 
portion to the vast tracts in a wild state. 
At Amoy and over all that part of the province 
of Fokien the mountains are even more barren than 
those of Quantung. On some of the hills on the 
island of Amoy, the traveller may wander for miles 
and scarcely see even a weed. On every side there 
is nothing but masses of dark crumbling granite, 
and red burnt-looking clay. This, however, seems 
the northern boundary of the most barren part of 
China. When we reach the river Min near Foo- 
chow-foo, there is a great change visible in the 
vegetation of the hills, caused, of course, by the 
richer nature of the soil. This remark applies to 
the northern portion of Fokien and to the whole 
of the province of Chekiang. I have ascended hills 
near the mouth of the Min at least 3,000 feet above 
the level of the sea, which were under cultivation 
to their summit. The soil here was composed of a 
gravelly loam; and though far from rich, it con¬ 
tained more vegetable matter or humus, and was 
also much deeper. This addition of vegetable mat¬ 
ter rendered the soil sufficiently fertile to repay 
the Chinese farmer for the labor expended in 
bringing the crops to maturity. Some of the hills 
are of course much more productive than others. 
The tea districts, for example, both in the pro¬ 
vince of Fokien and Chekiang, are not only mon 
fertile, but are very different from what they art 
generally supposed to be. 
But even here, and over all the most fertile moun¬ 
tain districts of Central China, it would be ridicu¬ 
lous to assert, as some have done, that the whole 
or even the greater part is under cultivation. On the 
contrary by far the greater part lies in a state of 
