THE collecting and preparing of manure of various descriptions, and
making it up into cakes for sale, occupy a very considerable population
of the lowest class of society, and for the most part is the employment
of the aged and children. No agriculturists, perhaps, understand the
value of manure better than the Chinese, and certainly none are so well
skilled in the economical distribution of it. It is quite ridiculous to
see the avidity with which young children follow a traveller on
horseback for the chance of catching what the animal may emit, which is
immediately caught up, and thrown into the basket; and if the traveller
himself should contribute his portion, it is considered as more valuable
than that from the animal.
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[Illustration:
CHINA—PLATE 9
]
Plate IX.