after a season of labour, before it will yield its greatest increase. How the Chinese acquired this knowledge, and at what epoch, are questions which Confucius himself would probably have been puzzled to answer. There is no doubt that they succeed in raising green crops and grain alternately from their fields at least twice in the year. But this extraordinary fertility is due in part to the small size of their farms, which are, most of them, of so limited an area that the proprietors can cultivate them personally with unceasing care, and part also to the abundant use of manure in fashion among the peasants of China. We see evidence of the social economy of the people in a multitude of instances and a variety of ways. Thus, when the farmer is near a town he pays a small sum to certain houses for the pri- vilege of daily removing their sewage to his own manure-pit. This sewage he uses, for the most part in a fluid state, often to fertilise poor waste lands which have been leased to him at a low rental. If his farm is some distance from villages or towns, he is careful to use every opportunity for securing cheap suppHes of the manure which he so much needs, and accord- ingly erects small houses for the use of wayfarers, along the edge of his fields. His neighbour is equally careful to have houses of the same description; and they vie with each other in keeping them as clean and attractive-looking as possible.
I returned to Canton alone from San Shui, in a small boat, leaving my friends to find their own way leisurely back. At one place there were only a few inches of water above the bed of the stream, so I had to hire an open canoe, while my baggage was carried overland to the next bend of the river. In this canoe I descended, or rather raced, down to Fatshan, amid a number of similar craft whereon Chinese traders were embarked. The distance was about twenty-five miles. We
