Page:China- Its State and Prospects.djvu/60

38 mineral kingdom are laid under requisition for this important purpose.

In their dress, the Chinese are alike anxious to economize the soil. Barrow says, "that an acre of cotton will clothe two or three hundred persons:" and as cotton can be planted between the rice crops, and thus vary the productions, and relieve the soil, the Chinese prefer such clothing as they can raise, at the least expense of ground and labour. Were the hundreds of millions of China to be clothed in woollens, an immense tract of grazing land would be required, which would deduct materially from the area devoted to food, and greatly exceed what the Chinese could afford. In their dwellings, likewise, they are particularly frugal of room: living together in a very small compass, and crowding into closely built cities, as though ground with them were an object of great moment. A room twenty feet square would afford sufficient space for a dozen people to eat, drink, work, trade, and sleep; while the streets of their towns and cities are so narrow, that it is quite possible to touch each side of the way with the hand as you pass along. Now, if we compare this frugality with the extravagance of European nations in regard to room, living on beef and mutton, and wearing woollen clothes, we may easily see that the ground which would sustain one Englishman, would be sufficient for the support of three or four Chinese. Amongst such a selfish and sensual people, so much economy would not be observed, did not stern necessity compel; and what greater necessity can exist