The Ottawa free trader., 1876-07-01
CHINESE AGRICULTURE.

Prof. Liebig, the great agricultural chem.
iS in his Letters on Modern agriculture,
gives US the following insight into how il is
done in China:
will show the teachers of agriculture an.
other people, who, without the aid of science,
of which they know nothing, have found the
philosophers stone, which these very teach
ers, in their blindness, vainly seek. | will
point out to them a land, the fertility of
which has for three thousand years never de-
creased but, on the contrary, has been ever
on the increase; and where more men are
crowded together on square mile than are
| TO be found on the same space in Holland or
England.
According to the testimony of all reports
of our own and former times, made by Davis,
Hedde, Fortune, and others, and which have
been fully borne out by the special inquiries
into the state of Chinese husbandry, institu-
ted on the spot at my request by the dlrec-
ton Of the late Sir Robert Peel, 1t appears
that ia Cnlna nothing is known Of meadop
culture or of fodder plants, which are grown
for the sake Of cattle. Furm-ydTd mGRurG is
equally unknown; every field yields pr0dure
ttcice q year, and is never allowed to lie
fdllOW.
Wheat often produces one hundred and
twenty fold and upwards (Eckebcrg); and a
fitteen-fold crop is considered an average
Weld Davis) All those means which the
German teacher OF agriculture regards as IN
dtspensi6,e for increasing the produce Of our
fields, and Instructs his followers to employ,
are not only entirely dispensed with by the
Chinese farmer, but he actually obtains, |
without their cooperation, crops which ex-
ceed more than two-fold those of the German
high farmers.
I readily admit that the Chinese are differ
emily cirCumsanced from what we are In
Europe. Most of them are Buddhists and
eat no beef; we eat more flesh, and must con-
sequently grow fodder for the production of
that article of our diet But that is not the
question before US, but one which concerns
those principles that are to guide the prac-
tice of husbandry Our teachers of modern
agriculture do not tell US to grow fodder that
flesh may be produced; but that we ought to
do so for the purpose of forming manure;
which clearly shows that they have no just
conception of the true nature and aim of
agriculture and that they are altogether ig.
norant of scientific principles in the matter.
In China they know nothing of the funda.
mental principles upon which German agri-
culture is based. Except green manurng,
they neither know nor esteem the application ,
of any kind of manure beyond the eXcre-
ally employed by them to increase their {
crops, are in quantity and effect utterly IN (
81 significant, when compared with the use of I
human tXercments. I
1t is quite impossible for us in Europe TO +
form an adequate conception of the great I
care which is bestowed in China upon the >
collection of human excrements. In the
eyes of the Chinese, these constitute the tue
sustenance of the soil $50 Davis, Fortune,
Hedde and others tell us), in it is principally
the most energetic agent that they ascribc
the activity and fertility of the earth.
The Chinese, whose house is still, what it
most probably has ever been, a tent, only
that il Is built of stone and wood, knows
nothing of prlvies as We have them in our
but, III their stead, there are found
in the principal and most comfortable
part of his dwelling, earthenware tubs, or
cisterns, most carefully constructed of stone
and lime; and the notion of utility so com.
pletely prevails over the sense of SMELL that,
rs Fortune tells us ("The Tea District OF
China and India,' vol. l., p. 22l), what in
every civilized town of Europe would be re.
rarded us a most iutolerablc nuisance is
here looked upon by all classes, rich and
poor, with the utmost cemplacence, and" he
continues, nothing would cause greater sur
prise TO a Chinese than TO complain of the
stencil arising from these receptacles." The
Chinese do not dislnfect this manure; but
hey are perfectly aware that IT loses part of
It's fertilzing power by the action of the air !
and they, therefore, take great care TO guard |
against evaporation.
Except the trade IN gram, and in articles |
Df food, generally, there is none so extern !
slvely carried on in China as that in human |
,xcremen,s Long clumsy boats, which ira |
verse the street canals, collect these matters |
every day. and distribute them over the \
country Every Coolie who has brought his |
produce 10 market in the morning, carries I
home at night two pals full of this manure |
IN a bamboo pole.
The estimation in which it is held is so \
yreat, that everybody knows the amount OF
,xcrements voided per man IN a day, month, /
,r year; and Chinese would regard aS
,ross breach Of manners, the departure from
lis house of guest who neglects 10 let him :,
iave that advantage 10 which he deems him.
elf Justly entitled in return for his hospital o'
ty. The value of the excrements of five peo -