Page:China- Its State and Prospects.djvu/55

Rh nothing, and only barters and exchanges commodities for the sake of gain. This honour put upon agricultural employments is evidently the result of design; and shews that the country, being overstocked with inhabitants, needs cultivating to its utmost extent, in order to provide the people with sustenance.

The industry and skill of the Chinese, striving to produce as many of the necessaries of life as possible, would also argue a dense population, ever struggling against threatening want, and compelled to exert themselves for their daily bread. In tropical climates, where the ground is fertile, and the population scanty, the natives find that, by a few months' labour, they can produce sufficient food for a whole year's consumption, and are therefore indisposed to exert themselves further. But in China, the inhabitants are incessantly employed, and every individual is obliged to be busy in contributing his quota to the common weal. Everyone, in the least acquainted with the manners of the Chinese, knows that they are untiring in their exertions to maintain themselves and families. In the business of agriculture, they are more particularly active, raising two crops from the ground every year, extending their cultivation in every possible direction, and bringing the most unpromising spots into use, in order that nothing may be lost. Their skill in effecting these objects is not, considering their few advantages, contemptible. They thoroughly understand the importance of varying the crops; they know perfectly well the seasons and soils adapted for certain productions; and they are fully sensible of the importance of manuring the ground, in order to maintain its fertility. A stranger is struck with this, on first setting his foot on the shores of China. Rh