Page 6 Advertisements Column 4

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 13160, 25 April 1906, Page 6

The Chinese method of dealing with their domestic animals is peculiar. When not in use they spend their lives anchored by a very short rope, attached to pegs sunk deep in the ground, in front of the owner's dwelling. Pigs are kept in a kind of well, with a brick wall to prevent it- caving- in, and for shelter a little kennel i* provided for them at the edge, of the pit. to which they can ascend by climbing a very steep flight of brick steps. The lot of Chinese horses and mules is not more happy. The Chinese cart, is a peculiar affair, and appears to be much of the same type as in ancient days. The- ordinary passenger cart is dragged by one animal in the towns and by two in the country. '1 he. country cart, employed for hauling produce and also for all domestic purposes by the great bulk of the population, is a machine of phenomenal weight. The wheel of one of them was found to weigh 1771b, and the axle 571b in addition, giving a total of 4111b for" the wheels alone. The shafts are stout—as they need to be—and if the cart upsets, a by no means infrequent occurrence, they pin the shaft animal to the ground. To these farm carts mules, horses, cows, and donkeys are hitched by r.ioans of ropes fastened to the axles, and to make these beasts pull together is a fa-k to which no Occidental would . aspire. When the British troops marched on f'ekin in 1860 the Chinese carters deserted, and the men could do nothing with the teams, j