Page:China- Its State and Prospects.djvu/52

30 home-fed; they have few horses for travelling, pomp, or war; and the only cattle they keep are such as are needed in husbandry: hence, there are no grazing farms, no meadows, and very little pasture; while every acre of ground, capable of cultivation, is turned up by the spade or the plough, in order to afford sustenance for the teeming inhabitants. The few beasts of burden, or of draught, which they keep, are either tethered to a string, by the side of the road, or turned out to graze on the hills; while they are supplied, by night, with a little straw or bean stalks, which is also their principal food during the winter. A common is quite unusual throughout the eastern half of China; while parks and pleasure grounds are proportionably scarce, as the anxiety to satisfy the appetite prevails over the desire of amusement. Wheel carriages being rare, particularly in the south, the roads are comparatively few and narrow; generally consisting of raised pathways through the rice fields, or of winding lanes over the mountains. The statement of Barrow, that "the imperial roads are triple," with the declaration of Le Compte, that "they are fourscore feet broad, or near it," does not interfere with the general assertion, that the roads of China are narrow; for the two writers just quoted, are speaking of the public roads in the vicinity of he capital, and of the royal way from Peking to the imperial residence in Chinese Tartary. Broad ways may comport with a high state of civilization, but where the people are little accustomed to luxury and self-indulgence, they will be content with narrow paths; particularly when every particle of improvable soil is needed to sustain the population. What an immense quantity of land is