398 
purpose; the back and sides being much higher than the front, to prevent 
the grain from being dispersed. After being winnowed it is carried to the 
granary. 
To remove the skin or husk of Rice, a large strong earthen vessel, or hol¬ 
low stone, in form somewhat like that which is used elsewhere for filtering 
water, is fixed firmly in the ground, and the grain, placed in it, is struck 
with a conical stone fixed to the extremity of a lever, and cleared, sometimes 
indeed imperfectly, from the husk. The same object is attained by passing 
the grain between two fiat stones of a circular form, the upper of which 
turns round upon the other, but at such a distance from it as not to break 
the grain. The operation is performed on a larger scale, in mills turned by 
water; the axis of the wheel carrying several arms, which raise levers by 
striking upon the ends of them. Sometimes twenty of these levers are 
worked at once. The straw is cut chiefly into chaff, to serve as provender 
for the very few cattle employed in Chinese husbandry. 
The labour of the first crop being finished, the ground is immediately 
prepared for the reception of fresh seeds. The first operation is to pull up 
the stubble, collect it into small heaps, burn it, and scatter the ashes upon 
the field. The former processes are afterwards renewed. The second crop 
is generally ripe late in October, or early in November. The grain is treated 
as before; but the stubble is no longer burnt. It is turned under with the 
plough and left to putrefy in the earth. This, with the slime brought upon 
the ground by inundation, are the only manures usually employed in the 
culture of Rice. Lands thus fertilized by the overflowing of the tide in the 
proximity of the sea, or of rivers or canals, are not appropriate solely to 
the production of Rice. They are found equally suitable for raising an ex¬ 
cellent crop of sugar canes, with the precaution only of keeping off the water 
after the young canes appear above the surface. 
Satisfied with two crops of Rice, or one of Sugar in the year, the 
Chinese husbandman generally suffers the land to remain at rest till the 
following spring, when the same process is repeated. And thus from 
generation to generation, successive crops are raised from the same soil, 
without the least idea of any necessity to let the earth lie fallow or idle 
for a year.* 
* Staunton, Emb. to China, 2. 3 Q 2 to 397. See Thumberg’s Travels, 4, 35 , 3, 143. 
