as military roads, and "so far," Governor Raffles continues, " from contributing to the assistance of the agriculture or trade of Java, their construction has, on the contrary, in many instances been destructive to whole districts. The peasant who completed them by his own labor, or the sacrifice of the lives of his cattle, was debarred from their use, and not permitted to drive his cattle along them, while he saw the advantages they were capable of yielding reserved for his European masters, who thus became enabled to hold a more secure possession of his country." (History of Java, &c. i. 198.)

938. Of the peninsula of Malacca very little is known. Agriculture is carried on in the marginal districts of the country; but the central parts are covered with unexplored forests, which swarm with wild men and women, 147 (fig. 147.) monkies, tigers, wild boars, elephants, and other animals. The chief grain cultivated is rice; and the chief exports are, pepper, ginger, gum, and other spices, raisins, and woods. Game and fruits abound. "The lands (Le Pouvre observes) are of a superior quality; and covered with odoriferous woods; but the culture of the soil abandoned to slaves, is fallen into contempt. These wretched laborers, dragged incessantly from their rustic employments by their restless masters, who delight in war and maritime enterprises, have rarely time, and never resolution, to give the necessary attention to the laboring of their grounds."

939. The kingdom of Siam may be described as a wide vale between two high ridges of mountains; but compared with the Birman empire, the cultivated land is not above half the extent either in breadth or length.

940. The agriculture of the Siamese does not extend far from the banks of the river, or its branches; so that towards the mountains there are vast aboriginal forests filled with wild animals, whence they obtain the skins which are exported. The rocky and variegated shores of the noble gulf of Siam, and the size and inundations of the Meinam, conspire with the rich and picturesque vegetation of the forests, illumined at night by crowds of brilliant fire-flies, to impress strangers with admiration and delight.

941. The soil towards the mountains is parched and infertile; but on the shores of the river consists, like that of Egypt, of a very rich and pure mould, in which a pebble can scarcely be found; and the country would be a terrestrial paradise if its government were not so despotic as to be justly reckoned far inferior to that of their neighbors the Birmans. Rice of excellent quality is the chief product of their agriculture; wheat is not unknown; pease and other vegetables abound; and maize is confined to their gardens. The fertility of Siam depends in a great degree, like that of Egypt or the Nile, on their grand river Meinam and its contributary streams.

942. The kingdom of Laos borders on China, and is surrounded by forests and deserts, so as to be of difficult access to strangers. The climate is so temperate, and the air so pure, that men are said to retain their health and vigor, in some instances, to the age of one hundred years. The flat part of the country resembles Siam, (fig. 148.) The soil

to that of other oriental countries. Excellent wax and honey are produced in abundance, and the poppy, ginger, pepper, and other plants are cultivated, and their products exchanged with the Chinese for their cloths.

149

943. Cambodia, like Siam, is enclosed by mountains on the east and west; and fertilised by an overflowing river. The climate is so hot that the inhabitants are under the necessity of residing on the banks of the rivers and lakes, where they are tormented by musquitos. The soil is fertile, and produces abundance of corn, rice, excellent legumes, sugar, indigo, opium, camphor, and various medicinal drugs. The most peculiar product is the gamboge-gum (Stalagmitis cambogioides), which yields a fine yellow tint. Ivory, also, and silk, are very plentiful, and of little value. Cattle, particularly of the cow kind, are numerous, and cheap. Elephants, lions, tigers, and almost all the animals of the deserts of Africa, are found in Cambodia. It has several precious woods, among which are the sandal and eagle-wood, and a particular tree, in the juice of which they dip their arrows; and it is said, that though a wound from one of the arrows proves fatal, the juice itself may be drank without danger. The country, though fertile, is very thinly peopled. 944. Cochin China presents an extensive range of coast, but few marks of tillage. Besides rice and other grains, sugar, silk, cotton, tobacco, yams, sweet potatoes, pumpkins (fig. 149.), melons, and other culinary vegetables, are cultivated; and cinnamon, pepper, ginger, cardamoms, silk, cotton, sugar, aula wood, japan wood, Columba and other woods and spice plants abound in the woods and copses. The horses are small, but active; and they have the ox, buffalo, mules, asses, sheep, swine, and goats. Tigers, elephants, and monkies abound in the forests, and on the shores are found the edible swallows' nests, esteemed a luxury in the East, and especially in China. These nests are ascertained to be formed of a species of sea-weed, the fucus lichnoides of botanists. Almost every kind of domestic animal, except sheep, appears to be very plentiful. In Cochin China, they have bullocks, goats, swine, buffaloes, elephants, camels, and horses. In the woods are found the wild boar, tiger, rhinoceros, with plenty of deer: they account the flesh of the elephant a great dainty, and their poultry is excellent. They pay little attention to the breeding of bullocks, as the tillage of their land is performed by buffaloes, and their flesh is not esteemed as food. The sea, as well as the land, is a never-failing source of sustenance to those who dwell on the coast. Most of the marine worms distinguished by the name of molusca, are used as articles of food by the Cochin Chinese. All the gelatinous substances derived from the sea, whether animal or vegetable, are considered by them the most nutritious of all aliments; and on this principle various kinds of sea-weeds, particularly the fuci and alge, are included in their list of edible plants. The Cochin Chinese collect likewise many of the small succulent, or fleshy plants, which are usually produced on salt and sandy marshes, which they either boil in their soups, or eat in a raw state, to give sapidity to their rice, which with them is the grand support of existence. In Cochin China they are almost certain of two plentiful crops of rice every year, one of which is reaped in April, the other in October. Fruits of various kinds, as oranges, bananas, figs, pine apples, pomegranates, and others of inferior note, are abundantly produced in all parts of the country. They have very fine yams, and plenty of sweet potatoes. Their small breed of cattle does not appear to furnish them with much milk; but of this article they make a sparing use, even with regard to their young children.

945. Tonquin, in regard to surface, may be divided into two portions, the mountainous and the plain. The mountains are neither rocky nor precipitous, and are partly covered with forests. The plain is flat like Holland, being intersected by canals and dykes, and varied by lakes and rivers. The chief agricultural product is rice, of which there are two harvests annually in the low country, but in the high lands only one. Wheat and wine are unknown. The mulberry-tree is common; and the sugar-cane is indigenous; but the art of refining the juice is unknown. The live stock are chiefly oxen, buffaloes, and horses; swine abound, and there are a few goats; but asses and sheep are unknown. Dogs, cats, and rats are eaten. Poultry, ducks, and geese abound, and are found wild in the forests. The eggs of ducks are heated in ovens, and produce young, which swarm on the canals and ponds. The forests contain deer, boars, peacocks, a peculiar kind of partridge, and quails. (fig. 150.) The tigers are large and destructive; one of which

is said to have entered a town, and to have destroyed eighty-five people. The wild

elephants are also very dangerous; apes are found in these forests, and some of them of large size: these and the parrots are not a little destructive to the rice and fruits. The Tonquin plough consists of three pieces of wood, a pole, a handle, and a third piece, almost at right angles with the last, for opening the ground; and they are simply fixed with straps of leather: this plough is drawn by oxen or buffaloes.

946. The agriculture of Japan is superior to that of most eastern countries. 947. The climate of Japan is variable. In summer the heat is violent; and, if it were not moderated by sea breezes, would be intolerable. The cold in winter is severe. The falls of rain commence at midsummer, and to these Japan owes its fertility, and also its high state of population. Thunder is not unfrequent: tempests, hurricanes, and earthquakes are very common. From Thunberg's thermometrical observations it appears that the greatest degree of heat at Negasaki was 98o in August, and the severest cold in January, 35°. The face of the country presents some extensive plains, but more generally mountains, hills, and valleys; the coast being mostly rocky and precipitous, and invested with a turbulent sea. It is also diversified with rivers and rivulets, and many species of vegetables.

948. The soil of Japan, though barren, is rendered productive by fertilizing showers and manure, and by the operation of agricultural industry.

949. Agriculture, Thunberg informs us, is here well understood, and the whole country, even to the tops of the hills, is cultivated. Free from all feudal and ecclesiastical impediments, the farmer applies himself to the culture of the soil with diligence and vigour. Here are no commons; and it is a singular circumstance, that if any portion be left uncultivated, it may be seized by a more industrious neighbor. The Japanese mode of manuring is to form a mixture of all kinds of excrements, with kitchen refuse, which is carried in pails into the field, and poured with a ladle upon the plants, when they have attained the height of about six inches; so that they thus instantly receive the whole benefit. They are also very attentive to weeding. The sides of the hills are cultivated by means of stone walls, supporting broad plats, sown with rice or esculent roots. Rice is the chief grain; buckwheat, rye, barley, and wheat being little used. A kind of root, used as the potatoe (Convolvulus edulis), is abundant, with several sorts of beans, pease, turnips, cabbages, &c. From the seed of a kind of cabbage, lamp oil is expressed; and several plants are cultivated for dyeing; with the cotton shrubs and mulberry trees for the food of silkworms. The varnish and camphor trees, the vine, the cedar, the tea tree, and the bamboo reed, not only grow wild, but are planted for

numerous uses.

950. In respect to live stock, there are neither sheep nor goats in the whole empire of Japan; and, in general, there are but few quadrupeds. The food of the Japanese consists almost entirely of fish and fowl, with vegetables. Some few dogs are kept from motives of superstition; and cats are favorites of the ladies. Hens and common ducks are domesticated for the sake of their eggs.

SUBSECT. 8. Present State of Agriculture in the Chinese Empire.

951. Agricultural improvement in China has, in all ages, been encouraged and honored. The husbandman is considered an honorable as well as a useful member of society; he ranks next to men of letters or officers of state, of whom he is frequently the progenitor. The soldier, in China, cultivates the ground. The priests also are agriculturists, whenever their convents are endowed with land. Notwithstanding all these advantages, however, the Chinese empire by no means so generally cultivated as Du Halde and other early travellers asserted. Some districts are almost entirely under cultivation; but in many there are extensive wastes.

952. Dr. Abel is of opinion that that part of China passed through by Lord Amherst's embassy, the land "very feebly productive in food for man, fully equalled that which afforded it in abundant quantity." He never found extensive tracts of land in general cultivation, but often great industry and ingenuity on small spots; and concludes that "as horticulturists the Chinese may perhaps be allowed a considerable share of merit ; but on the great scale of agriculture, they are not to be mentioned with any European nations." (Narrative, &c. 127.)

953. Barrow says, few families cultivate more than is sufficient for their own use; that there are no teams, or dairies; that they are ignorant of the art of fatting cattle; and of the art of forming rotations of crops; that their implements are barbarous; and in short, that their agriculture, much as it has been vaunted by the Jesuits and some French philosophers, would be despised in Europe.

954. Livingstone, an intelligent resident in China, observes, "The statement in the Encyclopædia Britannica, that Chinese agriculture is distinguished and encouraged by the court beyond all other sciences,' is incorrect, since it is unquestionably subordinate to literature; and it may be well doubted whether it ought to be considered as holding among the Chinese the rank of a science; for, independently of that routine

which has been followed, with little variation, from a very high antiquity, they seem to be entirely ignorant of all the principles by which it could have been placed on a scientific foundation." (Hort. Trans. V. 49.)

955. The climate of China is in general reckoned moderate, though it extends from the 50th to the 21st degree of south latitude, and includes three climates. The northern parts are liable to all the rigors of an European winter. Even at Pekin, at that season, the average of the thermometer is under 20° during the night, and in the day considerably below the freezing point. The heat of those parts which lie under the tropics is moderated by the winds from the mountains of Tatary. In the southern parts there is neither frost nor snow, but they are very subject to storms, especially about the time of the equinoxes; all the rest of the year the sky is serene, and the earth covered with verdure.

956. The surface of the country, though in general flat, is much diversified by chains of granite mountains, hills, rivers, canals, and savage and uncultivated districts, towns innumerable, villages, and cottages covered with thatch, reed, or palm leaves, and in some places with their gardens, or forecourts, fenced with rude pales, as in England. (fig. 151.) China, Dr. Abel observes, from the great extent of latitude contained in its

:

boundaries, and from its extensive plains and lofty mountains, partakes of the advantages and defects of many climates, and displays a country of features infinitely varied by nature. Every thing artificial, however, has nearly the same characters in every province.

957. The soil varies exceedingly : it is in many parts not naturally fertile; but has almost every where been rendered so by the application of culture and manure for successive ages.

958. The landed property of China is considered as the absolute right of the emperor : but the sub-proprietor, or first holder, is never turned out of possession as long as he continues to pay about the tenth part of what his farm is supposed capable of yielding. And, though the holder of lands is only considered as a tenant at will, it is his own fault if he is dispossessed. If any one happens to hold more than his family can conveniently cultivate, he lets it to another, on condition of receiving half the produce, out of which he pays the whole of the emperor's taxes. The greater part of the poor peasantry cultivate land on these terms. In China there are no immense estates, no monopolizing farmers, nor dealers in grain. Every one can bring his produce to a free and open market; no fisheries are here let out to farm. Every subject is equally intitled to the free and uninterrupted enjoyment of the sea, of the coasts, of the estuaries, of the lakes and rivers. There are no manor lords with exclusive privileges, nor any game laws.

959. The agricultural products of China extend to every useful vegetable. There is scarcely a grain, a fruit, a tree, or a culinary vegetable of Europe, or the rest of the world, that they do not cultivate; and they have a number peculiar to themselves. Fowl and fish are not extensively reared, as the chief articles of diet are vegetables; and they are ignorant of the use of milk, butter, or cheese. Rice is the common grain of the country; a species of cabbage, the universal culinary vegetable; swine, the most abundant live stock ; and tea, the chief plant of export.

960. The tea districts of China extend from the 27th to the 31st degree of latitude.

According to the missionaries, it thrives in the more northern provinces; and from Kampfer it appears to be cultivated in Japan as far north as lat, 45°. It seems, according to Dr. Abel's observation, to succeed best on the sides of mountains, where there can be but little accumulation of vegetable mould. The soils from which he collected the best specimens consisted chiefly of sandstone, schistus, or granite. The land forming the Cape of Good Hope consisting of the same rocks, and its geographical position corresponding to that of the tea districts of China, Dr. Abel considers it might be grown there, if desirable, to such an extent as to supersede the necessity of procuring it from China. It grows well in St. Helena and Rio Janeiro, and will grow anywhere in a meagre soil and moderate temperature.

961. The culture of the tea plant in China has been given by various authors. It is raised from seeds sown where the plants are to remain. Three or more are dropped into a bole four or five inches deep; these come up without further trouble, and require little culture, except that of removing weeds, till the plants are three years old. The more careful stir the soil, and some manure it; but the latter practice is seldom adopted. The third year the leaves are gathered, at three successive gatherings, in February, April, and June, and so on till the bushes become stinted or tardy in their growth, which generally happens in from six to ten years. They are then cut-in to encourage the production of fresh shoots.

The

962. The gathering of the leaves is performed with care and selection. The leaves are plucked off one by one: at the first gathering only the unexpanded and tender are taken; at the second those that are full grown; and at the third the coarsest. first forms what is called in Europe imperial tea; but as to the other names by which tea is known, the Chinese know nothing; and the compounds and names are supposed to be made and given by the merchants at Canton, who, from the great number of varieties brought to them, have an ample opportunity of doing so. These varieties,

though numerous, and some of them very different, are yet not more so than the dif ferent varieties of the grape; they are now generally considered as belonging to one species; the thea bokea, now camellia bohea (fig. 152 a.) of botanists. Formerly it was thought that green tea was gathered exclusively from thea viridis; but that is now doubtful, though it is certain there is what is called the green tea district, and the black tea district; and the varieties grown in the one district differ from those grown in the other. Dr. Abel was unable to satisfy himself as to there being two species or one; but thinks there are two species. He was told by competent persons that either of the two plants will afford the black or green tea of the shops, but that the broad thin-leaved plant (C. viridis) is preferred for making the green tea.

963. The tea leaves being gathered, are cured in houses which contain from five to ten or twenty small furnaces, about three feet high, each having at the top a large flat

iron pan. There is also a long low table covered with mats, on which the leaves are laid, and rolled by workmen, who sit round it: the iron pan being heated to a certain degree by a little fire made in the furnace underneath, a few pounds of the fresh-gathered leaves are put upon the pan; the fresh and juicy leaves crack when they touch the pan, and it is the business of the operator to shift them as quick as possible with his bare hands, till they become too hot to be easily endured. At this instant he takes off the leaves with a kind of shovel resembling a fan, and pours them on the mats before the rollers, who, taking small quantities at a time, roll them in the palm of their hands in one direction, while others are fanning them, that they may cool the more speedily, and retain their curl the longer. This process is repeated two or three times, or oftener, before the tea is put into the stores, in order that all the moisture of the leaves may be thoroughly dissipated, and their curl more completely preserved. On every repetition the pan is less heated, and the operation performed more slowly and cautiously. The tea is then separated into the different kinds, and deposited in the store for domestic use or exportation.

964. The different sorts of black and green are not merely from soil, situation, and age of the leaf; but after winnowing the tea, they are taken up in succession as the leaves fall; those nearest the machine, being the heaviest, is the gunpowder tea; the light dust the worst, being chiefly used by the lower classes. That which is brought down to Canton undergoes there a second roasting, winnowing, packing, &c., and many hundred women are employed for these purposes.