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subsist on cheaper kinds of grain. A great proportion of the surface of the 
country is well adapted to the production of Rice. Many and great rivers 
run through the several provinces of China; the low grounds bordering on 
those rivers are annually inundated, by which means a rich mud or mucilage 
is brought upon their surface, which fertilizes the soil, in the same manner as 
Egypt is by the overflowing of the Nile. 
After the mud has lain some days, preparations are made for planting 
Rice. For this purpose, a small spot of ground is inclosed by a bank of 
clay; the earth is ploughed up; and an upright harrow with a row of 
wooden pins in the lower end, is drawn lightly over it by a buffalo. The 
grain, previously steeped in dung diluted with animal water, is then sown 
very quickly on it. A thin sheet of water is immediately brought over it, 
either by channels leading to the spot from a source above it, or when below 
it, by means of a chain-pump, the use of which is as familiar as that of a 
hoe to every Chinese husbandman. In a few days the shoots appear above 
the water. In that interval, the remainder of the ground intended for cul¬ 
tivation, if stiff, is ploughed, the lumps broken by hoes, and the surface 
levelled by the harrow. As soon as the shoots have attained the height of 
six or seven inches, they are plucked up by the roots, the tops of the blades 
cut off, and each root is planted separately, sometimes in small furrows 
turned with the plough, and sometimes in holes made in rows by a drilling 
stick for that purpose. The roots are about a foot asunder. Water is 
brought over them a second time, for the convenience of irrigation, and to 
regulate its proportion. The Rice fields are subdivided by narrow ridges of 
clay into small inclosures. Through a channel in each ridge the water is 
conveyed at will to every subdivision. As the Rice approaches to maturity, 
the water, by evaporation and absorption, disappears entirely; and the 
crop, when ripe, covers the dry ground. The first harvest in the southern 
provinces particularly, happens towards the end of May or beginning of 
June. 
The instrument for reaping is a small toothed sickle. The sheaves are 
placed regularly in frames, two of which suspended at the extremities of a 
bamboo pole are carried across the shoulders of a man to the place where it 
is to be threshed. This operation is performed not only by a flail, or by the 
treading of cattle, but sometimes also by striking it against a plank set upon 
its edge, or by beating it against the side of a large tub scolloped for that 
5 h 
