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CHINA AND THE CHINESE.

CHAPTER X.-AGRICULTURE-CHINESE AN AGRICULTURAL PEOPLE-EMPEROR ATTENDING AGRICULTURAL FESTIVAL INGENUITY IN IRRIGATION-DWARF VEGETATION-FRUITS AND VEGETABLES-TEA, AND MODE OF PREPARATIONMODE OF PREPARING SEEDS FOR THE GROUND VALUABLE TO BRITISH AGRICULTURISTS.

THE Chinese are a nation of the most industrious habits, and must be considered as an agricultural people. They have most wisely established laws for the protection and encouragement of agriculture, and to such an extent is it carried, that the emperor does not think it derogatory to his dignity, once in every year, at the agricultural festival, to descend from his throne, clad as a husbandman, to set the laudable example to his subjects of tilling the earth; his family and courtiers, similarly habited with himself, attend him on the occasion. The appointed day having been previously proclaimed throughout the empire, the emperor goes forth and ploughs a particular field, and every farmer through his vast territories simultaneously turns up the earth. The produce of the field ploughed by the emperor is always most carefully preserved, being considered far superior to any other. The ancient laws are so particular upon the subject, that they even declare the peculiar manner in which the sovereign shall perform this ceremony. So essential do the Chinese consider agriculture to the prosperity of a nation, in contradistinction to the many heavy blows and great discouragements inflicted upon it in Great Britain, by modern legislation. By another ancient law, all uncultivated or neglected lands are declared forfeited to the emperor, who grants them to farmers, on condition of their being kept in proper cultivation. The consequence of this is, that, in China there is not an uncultivated spot to be seen. A fifth, and in some instances, a fourth part, of all produce is reserved for the emperor, which is paid in kind to the principal mandarin of the prince, who farms the tax.

There is one great peculiarity in Chinese agriculture, which, if adopted, might prove highly advan

tageous to British farmers. All seeds, previous to being sown, are steeped in liquid manure until they germinate, and to this, coupled with their system of irrigation, may be attributed the rich luxuriance and abundance of their

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various crops. Their ingenuity and perseverance may daily be witnessed in the terraces, built one above the other, up to the summit of a rocky mountain, where paddy is cultivated. form reservoirs and dams on each platform, and the water having passed along one terrace, is received into the reservoir of the next below, and thus descends, step by step, in its irrigatory course. After the rainy season, when the water has been exhausted which was saved in these reservoirs, the water is carried both by hand and ingenuity, to the heights above. Their various modes of irrigation have been frequently described. Their methods of threshing rice or paddy are numerous. I have seen them threshing with flails of bamboo, somewhat similar to ours in form, but shorter. I have also seen them or their oxen, tread out the corn, reminding me, in that heathen land, of the passage, "Thou shalt not muzzle the ox which treadeth out the corn." Rice is the staff of life in China, from which grain they distil a spirit called samshoo, known in England as arrack. Here are we furnished with an example of the manner in which everything is turned by the Chinese to account, and nothing wasted. The grain forms their food, the straw thatches their houses, and out of it they construct coarse mats, and make paper. The husks are carefully collected, and being mixed with a greasy substance, are formed into cakes to feed the pigs. Ornaments are manufactured out of prepared rice, which is first pounded into paste, and then hardened by fire. I have seen very pretty vases, and

bottles of antique form of this material. As they cultivate their hills to the summits, so do they make the morasses subservient to the support of man. Bamboos, split longitudinally, are placed upon the marsh, and over these are laid layers of earth. In this artificial soil vegetables and pot-herbs are raised to the greatest perfection. There is no plant, in short, growing in China, which is not rendered subservient to man's use. They extract oil, equal to the finest Florence, for.table use, from the kernels of apricots. Excellent oil is also extracted from various seeds, such as the cotton and turnip, which is used for lamps, and by the lower orders for culinary purposes. A most beautiful black dye is prepared from the cup of the acorn; and the finest scarlet is extracted from the cactus. Should the crop of mulberry leaves prove insufficient for the support of the silk-worm, the leaves of the ash-tree are made to supply the deficiency.

The sugar-cane plantations in China are allowed to be of a very superior quality, and I have been induced to believe, from the complaints made by West Indian planters, of the want of water, that to the superiority of Chinese irrigation, is due the excellence of their canes. They conduct water through trenches from the large reservoirs between each row of canes, and at regular intervals allow it to flow through transverse trenches; these trenches are either closed or opened, as the canes in their respective vicinities require moisture. As no farmer exclusively cultivates the sugar-cane, as the farms are all small, and none can afford the expense of machinery, the use of a perambulating machine for the extraction of the juice, is contracted for by several adjoining farmers. A temporary building or bamboo shed for boiling is constructed in some central position; the proprietors of each plantation, with the assistance of their families, carry their canes to this building, and in like manner convey back the manufactured produce. There is nothing lost even here, for the canes, after the sugar has been extracted, are used for fuel.

In gravelly soils, where nothing else can be cultivated, the farmer plants the bamboo, of which there are several

kinds. The appearance of the tree, with its tapering trunk, and leaves of most graceful form, something resembling, but larger, than those of the willow, of a brilliant, light green color, is peculiarly elegant. I have seen them growing from twenty to thirty feet in height. The yellow trunk and green leaves of a bamboo plantation present a very agreeable contrast to the eye.

The uses to which the bam. boo is applied are various; of the young sprouts a most delicious preserve is manufactured; a medicinal substance is extracted from the hollow of the tree. I am ignorant as to whether this is known in England. Paper is manufactured from the pulp; masts and spars are formed of the full grown tree, as well as rafts, houses, and furniture. The poles used by coolees for carrying burthens are made of bamboo, and the oxen are yoked with it.

The fruits I have eaten in China are very fine, but not equal to those of Singapore. The Chinese have the pine-apple, custard-apple, lee-chea, pomegranate, pumbelow-a plum which comes from Chink-chew, which is very delicious, not unlike our eggplum, grapes-from which a weak wine is made, used by the richer classes, resembling, in flavour, bad Madeira-water-melons, sweet-melons, apricots, guavas, plantains, bananas, papaw, chesnuts, citrons, mangoes, and, though last not least, oranges. Many of the fruits are dried, and also made into preserves and jellies. The orange-plantations are truly beautiful, and their fragrance almost overpowering, surpassing those of Italy and Spain. The size of the blossoms and flowers is most extraordinary. Their beauty is peculiar to China. But the Orange, par excellence, of China, is the mandarin orange. To be eaten in perfection, it must be used immediately after it has been taken from the tree, as it will not keep above two or three days. They are of a flatter form than others, and somewhat smaller; the rind is the bright color of the Seville orange; although I cannot say, as a friend of mine did, that it was worth a voyage to China to taste it, yet it is a most delicious fruit.

The dwarf vegetation of China is peculiar to that country. I have had in my possession an oak, two feet high,

bearing acorns, and its trunk exhibiting all the external marks of an aged tree. I have also had orange and citron trees of the same size, bearing fruit of a very fine flavour. One of these orange-trees used to produce, at the same moment, incipient buds, blossoms in full flower, fruit newly set, and of full size, in a green state and ripe. But the greatest curiosity I had, was a bamboo-tree, two feet and a-half high, so distorted, as to represent a dragon with a boy seated on his back.

I had a very curious Camelia Japonica; I never heard of, or saw one like it in China. It was of a unique, bright purple colour. The Chinese could not have dyed it, as it bloomed in my own possession. The flower was large, and its form was perfect. All these dwarfs of the vegetable world were the gift of a valued friend, who took some pains to procure them for me; but the air of Hong-Kong destroyed them, as it does everything else. I have seen a lu-chee tree, whose natural size is that of our fullgrown mulberry-tree, dwarfed into one of three feet; its trunk had all the appearance of old timber, and the branches tapered similar to those on a natural-sized tree. I have heard of an orange-tree being distorted into the form of a man's hand; but I did not see it. The mode of dwarfing is simple: the branch of a full-grown tree is covered with mould, which is bound round with cloth or matting, and kept constantly wet; the fibres of the branch thus covered soon shoot into the mould, and then the branch is carefully cut from the tree, the bandage is removed, and it is planted in new earth. The fibres then become roots, and thus that which was previously a branch on the parent tree becomes a trunk, bearing flowers and fruit. The buds at the extremity of the branches, which are intended to be dwarfed, are torn off as soon as they appear, and by this means, the branches are arrested in their growth, and other buds and branches shoot out. After a certain time, sugar-juice is applied to the trunk of the dwarftree, by which means insects are attracted, and thus the bark is injured, and that knotted appearance is produced, peculiar to old trees. When it is proposed to give any particular

form to a tree, the branches are bent into shape, and retained in it by means of pieces of bamboo. Although China does not abound in a redundancy of those large trees and forests, seen in other parts of Asia, still there is no paucity of timber or useful trees, excepting in the Ladrone Islands, of which Hong-Kong is the worst specimen. The banyan or pagoda-tree, flourishes well, sending down its branches to root in the earth, and reproduce other trees, to be similarly multiplied, till innumerable arched trees, and cloistered alcoves, surround the enormous parent trunk. It is necessary to see this tree, to estimate its beauty, or the comfort afforded by its shade. It is needless to speak of the mulberry-trees which furnish food for the innumerable silkworms, whose silk forms so material an article in the exports from China. From the lackertree, which is the size of our ash, the Chinese obtain a very valuable oil, which they employ for varnish; it is necessary, however, to be most careful in the use of this oil, for, if dropped on the skin, it produces a cutaneous disease, which it is difficult to cure. There is a particular tree, which I heard of, but did not see, in China, which attracts a bee, called the "white-wax bee," which feeds upon its blossoms; the natives fasten nests in this tree, in which the bee deposits her wax, which is remarkably pure. The most curious tree in China is the tallow-tree, from whose fruit is extracted a vegetable fat, from which candles are manufactured; and from the kernels an oil is prepared, which is used by the poorer classes. When the fruit is ripe, which in appearance is something like the elderberry, but much larger, the leaves are tinted with a most beautiful purple-scarlet hue. The only laurel known in China is the camphor-laurel, which grows to a great size, and is used in ship-building. The camphor is obtained by boiling the branches and leaves, when an oil is collected from the surface of the water, and is then passed through a variety of processes; but the camphor thus produced, is not equal to that which is found in the trunk of the tree. I have been informed, that the Borneo camphor is much purer and far superior to the Chinese. There are whole forests of the camphor

tree there, which are cut down by the natives, solely for the sake of the camphor, and the timber is left to rot. Had we possession of this island, this might be made a valuable article of trade. Cotton grows in great luxuriance in many parts of China. From the rind of a species of sycamore, the Chinese manufacture some of their finest paper. There is a tree, also, from the pith of which, when dried, they produce a flour, used in culinary purposes. It is unnecessary to dilate upon the culture of the tea-plant, so much has been already written upon the subject. It grows wild in China, to the height of two or three feet, and bears a white fragrant flower; when cultivated, it attains the height of four or five feet. It is planted in rows, and weeded with the greatest care; the greater the care bestowed upon the plant, the finer is the flavour of the tea. There are many varieties; and the Chinese say, they have more than one hundred descriptions of the tea-plant. It is a most mistaken idea to suppose, that the green tea is made by the process of drying upon copper; as copper is never used in drying it. But black teas are often made green by colouring matter, which is very easily discovered by chewing a few leaves, or breathing upon a handful, when the green hue will soon disappear; this tea is known as "Canton Green." The green teas are a different species from the black altogether. The finest sorts of tea, which are used by the emperor and the wealthy mandarins, are cultivated with the same care which we bestow upon exotics. The younger the leaves are, when gathered, the finer is the flavour of the tea. The coarser kinds of tea, which are used by the poor, are

the old leaves, which have been gathered, without any preparation. In the mountainous parts of China, unsuitable to the cultivation of other crops, a species of tea-plant is grown, called, by the Chinese, "flower of tea." The flower of this plant, they sometimes mix with their finest teas, to impart a more fragrant flavour. The Arabian jessamine is said to be sometimes substituted for this purpose. A very superior oil is extracted from the nut of the "flower-of-tea" plant.

The vegetable productions of China are not only those peculiar to a tropical climate, such as brimjals, yams, occus, sweet-potatoes, and pumpkins, but also potatoes (though of an inferior description), peas, Windsor-beans, French-beans, turnips, and carrots, equal to our own. I have frequently had at my own table, an excellent white-cabbage, which is unknown in England, very good salad, radishes, a species of cucumber, equal in flavour to ours, but of a different appearance altogether; I must not forget the truffles, which are not inferior to those of the continent, nor the capers, which are very good. The tobaccoplant is cultivated in China to some extent; but it is of an inferior description. The plant from which castoroil is extracted, grows wild; but it is also cultivated with great care.

China is thus blessed in the fertility of her soil, and the produce of her silk-worms; but such prosperity is often arrested by one of the curses with which the Almighty formerly scourged the land of Egypt: whole provinces are sometimes entirely devastated by locusts. These voracious insects are peculiarly beautiful, of great variety, and some of a very large size, in China.

CHAPTER XI.-ARTS AND MANUFACTURES OF CHINA-GOLD AND SILVER TINSELPORCELAIN-SILKS-DESCRIPTION OF THE CARVED IVORY BALLS—COLOURS AND BEAUTY OF DYES-VISIT TO THE ATELIER OF LUM-QUA, THE SIR T. LAWRENCE OF CHINA-MANUFACTORY OF PAPER AND PRINTING OF BOOKS-LITERATURE OF THE COUNTRY.

AMONG the manufactures of China, the gold and silver tinsels of Pekin stand in the highest estimation. Their chief value arises from their possessing the property of never tarnishing in any climate. In appearance, they resemble cloth of gold or silver. Various and

frequent attempts have been made to discover the secret, which have all proved abortive, much to the detri ment of our own manufactures, whose value would be considerably enhanced by the discovery. Tinsels are wrought of various patterns, which have all the

appearance of being woven into the cloth, and not stamped upon its surface. They are constantly used in trimming their silken robes.

The beauty of the Chinese porcelain is well known, and could we introduce their colours into our manufactures, we might rival those of France. The finest specimens come from the manufactory near Pekin. The beautiful transparency and brilliancy of the white ground is supposed to be produced by an incombustible stone or earth, employed in its manufacture. If this be true, and the locality (which is said to be in the vicinity of the Yellow River) were discovered, this stone, or earth, might be brought, at a comparatively trifling cost, to England, as ballast in tea-ships, as all vessels laden with tea are obliged to have a certain quantity of ballast. The beauty of the porcelain-enamelling, in natural colours, upon metals, is too well known to require description; and the Chinese might here, again, become our instructors. The silks, satins, and crapes of China, are most beautiful; but I have learned from merchants that they are too costly, and too much prized in China, to form articles of any considerable trade with Great Britain. It is curious, that though the silks and satins surpass the looms of Great Britain and France, both for beauty of colour and durability of texture, yet the silk velvets are far inferior to those produced in England. The Chinese silk velvets, although possessing much substance, have the peculiarly dead hue of an English cotton velvet, and are totally void of the silky lustre of those manufactured at Genoa and Lyons.

The embroidery of the Chinese is peculiar to themselves, and is not only unequalled, but is far superior to that of any other nation. The exquisite contrivance by which the figures are made to correspond on both sides of the cloth continues a profound secret. The finest specimens of embroidery are manufactured in the interior, from which we are still excluded.

The filagree work of the Chinese equals any ever produced by ancient Venice, and their chasing in silver is certainly unrivalled. The beautiful fidelity with which they represent figures, houses, &c., within a less space than a quarter of an inch, is truly as

tonishing. I have seen in China specimens of enamelling, which surpass any I have ever seen produced at Geneva; and their excellence is particularly exemplified in their mode of using ultra-marine, which is rendered everlasting. It is said that this manufac tory is chiefly confined to Nankin.

France might well be proud, could she improve any of her manufactures, by ascertaining and adopting those processes by means of which the Chinese excel in any of the above arts; and it is very possible that some object of this sort has led her to incur the expense of an embassy to China, and to maintain a squadron in those seas. It behoves Great Britain to be on the alert, and watch the movements of her neighbour in China.

The beauty, pecularity, and depth of the carvings in ivory and tortoise-shell, are well known. I took some trouble and pains to obtain a view of the instruments with which the artists worked, but regret to say I was unsuccessful. The ivory balls so elaborately carved, and the ingenuity with which they are constructed, have long excited admiration, and surprise at the artistic skill and means by which so many concentric balls can be carved one within the other. I know not whether any one else has made the discovery, but the truth is, that each ball is constructed of two pieces, the edges of which are so finely scraped down, that the edge of one hemisphere is made to overlap its counterpart with the greatest nicety. Thus one ball is easily enclosed within an other. The joinings are then united by a peculiarly strong cement, aided by the employment of steam and pressure. Any one who wishes to make the expensive trial will soon ascertain the fact by applying a very powerful heat to one of these balls, which will open at the joints in due time. The most curious variety, one of which I possess, is a ball, which has all the appearance of being cut out of the solid mass, with perforated holes, through which, in whatever way it is turned, spikes of ivory protrude. Though the surface is perfectly smooth, and the weight such as to imply solidity, without any carving to conceal a joining, yet I doubt not that it is executed in a manner similar to the others.

The dyes of the Chinese have been

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