802. In the cultivation of culinary vegetables of all sorts, the Chinese are not to be surpassed by any nation of the globe. Whoever has visited Whampoa must have seen a striking proof of this assertion in the gardens, which adorn the steep sides of hills of Dane's and French Islands, where they rise in regular gradation, like a flight of stairs, from the bases to the summits of the hills. It must cost immense pains to cultivate them; and to water them, as the Chinese do, at least twice a day. These gardens exhibit, in the strongest manner, the persevering industry of the inhabitants, and delight the beholder with a rich vegetation, clothed in various shades of the liveliest verdure. (Ibid., vol. ii. p. 193.)
