s
Settlements.")

Rice in Cochin-China is the "staff of life," and forms the main
article of culture. There are six different sorts grown; two on the
uplands, used for confectionery, and yielding only one crop annually;
the other sorts affording from two to five crops a year; but generally
two, one in April and another in October; or three when the
inundations have been profuse.

The late Dr. Gutzlaff stated, at a meeting of the Statistical Society
of London, that the population of China was about 367,000,000, and the
returns of the land subject to tax as used in rice cultivation there,
gave nearly half an acre to each living person; and he further stated
that in the southern and well watered provinces, it is anything but
uncommon to take two crops of rice, one of wheat, and one of pulse,
from the same land in a single season. Rice is the only article the
Chinese ever offer a bounty for; the price fluctuates according to the
seasons, from one and three-quarter dollars to eight dollars per
picul. Siam and the Indian Islands, particularly Bali and Lombok,
supply the empire occasionally with large quantities.

The price of rice in China varies according to the state of the canals
leading to the interior; if they are full of water the prices rise; if
on the contrary they are low, prices fall in proportion at the
producing districts. The amount of consumption is controlled, in a
considerable degree, by the cost of transit; when this is cheap prices
rise from the general demand; but when land-carriage to any extent has
to be resorted to, they fall; it raises prices so much at any great
distance, that rice must be used very sparingly, from its enhanced
price. It is obvious that if the waters are sufficiently high to allow
a boat to pass fully loaded, she does so at an expense of nearly 50
per cent, less than she would do, if, from want of water, she could
only take half the quantity; when transport is cheap every one obtains
a full supply; when it is dear the rice districts have more than they
can consume.

At home we are so much accustomed to the facilities of transit offered
by railroads, canal boats, &c., that we do not readily take into
consideration, that in China, except by water, all articles are
conveyed from one place to another on men's shoulders. Taking the
population of Canton at the usual estimate of a million, and allowing
to each a catty a day, the quantity of rice required for one day's
consumption alone