of paper and a little sleeping mat; She set beside the window a lily
in a vase, And looked about with more than doubt upon her pretty
face: 'For, really--don't you think so?--with the lily and the fan.
It's a little overcrowded!' said Oumi of Japan."
(Margaret Johnson in St. Nicholas Magazine)
In the rural homes of Japan during 1906 there were woven 14,497,058
sheets of these floor mats and 6,628,772 sheets of other matting,
having a combined value of $2,815,040, and in addition, from the
best quality of rush grown upon the same ground, aggregating 7657
acres that year, there were manufactured for the export trade, fancy
mattings, having the value of $2,274,131. Here is a total value, for
the product of the soil and for the labor put into the manufacture,
amounting to $664 per acre for the area named.
At the Akashi agricultural experiment station, under the
Directorship of Professor Ono, we saw some of the methods of fruit
culture as practiced in Japan. He was conducting experiments with
the object of improving methods of heading and training pear trees,
to which reference was made on page 22. A study was also being made
of the advantages and disadvantages associated with covering the
fruit with paper bags, examples of which are seen in Figs. 6 and 7.
The bags were being made at the time of our visit, from old
newspapers cut, folded and pasted by women. Naked cultivation was
practiced in the orchard, and fertilizers consisting of fish guano
and superphosphate of lime were being applied twice each year in
amounts aggregating a cost of twenty-four dollars per acre.
Pear orchards of native varieties, in good bearing, yield returns of
150 yen per tan, and those of European varieties, 200 yen per tan,
which is at the rate of $300 and $400 per acre. The bibo, so
extensively grown in China was being cultivated here also and was
yielding about $320 per acre.
It was here that we first met the cultivation of a variety of
burdock grown from the seed, three crops being taken each season
where the climate is favorable, or as one of three in the multiple
crop system. It is grown for the root, yielding a crop valued at $40
to $50 per acre. One crop, planted, in March, was being harvested
July 1st.
During our ride to Akashi on the early morning train we passed long
processions of carts drawn by cattle, horses or by men, moving along
the country road which paralleled the railway, all loaded with the
waste of the city of Kobe, going to its destination in the fields,
some of it a distance of twelve miles, where it was sold at from 54
cents to $1.63 per ton.
At several places along our route from Shimonoseki to Osaka we had
observed the application of slacked lime to the water of the rice
fields, but in this prefecture, Hyogo, where the station is located,
its use was prohibited in 1901, except under the direction of the
station authorities, where the soil was acid or where it was needed
on account of insect troubles. Up to this time it had been the
custom of farmers to apply slacked lime at the rate of three to five
tons per acre, paying for it $4.84 per ton. The first restrictive
legislation permitted the use of 82 pounds of lime with each 827
pounds of organic manure, but as the farmers persisted in using much
larger quantities, complete prohibition was resorted to.
Reference has been made to subsidies encouraging the use of
composts, and in this prefecture prizes are awarded for the best
compost heaps in each county, examinations being made by a
committee. The composts receiving the four highest awards in each
county are allowed to compete with those in other counties for a
prefectural prize awarded by another committee.
The "pink clover" grown in Hyogo after rice, as a green manure crop,
yields under favorable conditions twenty tons of the green product
per acre, and is usually applied to about three times the area upon
which it grew, at the rate of 6.6 tons per acre, the stubble and
roots serving for the ground upon which the crop grew.
On July 3rd we left Osaka, going south through Sakai to Wakayama,
thence east and north to the Nara Experiment Station. After passing
the first two stations the route lay through a very flat, highly
cultivated garden section with cucumbers trained on trellises, many
squash in full bloom, with fields of taro, ginger and many other
vegetables. Beyond Hamadera considerable areas of flat sandy land
had been set close with pine, but with intervening areas in rice,
where the growers were using the revolving weeder seen in Fig. 14.
At Otsu broad areas are in rice but here worked with the short
handled claw weeders, and stubble from a former crop had been drawn
together into small piles, seen in Fig. 230, which later would be
carefully distributed and worked beneath the mud.
Much of the mountain lands in this region, growing pine, is owned by
private parties and the growth is cut at intervals of ten, twenty or
twenty-five years, being sold on the ground to those who will come
and cut it at a price of forty sen for a one-horse load, as already
described, page 159.
The course from here was up the rather rapidly rising Kiigawa valley
where much water was being applied to the rice fields by various
methods of pumping, among them numerous current wheels; an
occasional power-pump driven by cattle; and very commonly the
foot-power wheel where the man walks on the circumference, steadying
himself with a long pole, as seen in the field, Fig. 231. It was
here that a considerable section of the hill slope had been very
recently cut over, the area showing light in the engraving. It was
in the vicinity of Hashimoto on this route, too, that the two
beautiful views reproduced in Figs. 151 and 152 were taken.
At the experiment station it was learned that within the prefecture
of Nara, having a population of 558,314, and 107,574 acres of
cultivated land, two-thirds of this was in paddy rice. Within the
province there are also about one thousand irrigation reservoirs
with an average depth of eight feet. The rice fields receive 16.32
inches of irrigation water in addition to the rain.
Of the uncultivated hill lands, some 2500 acres contribute green
manure for fertilization of fields. Reference has been made to the
production of compost for fertilizers on page 211. The amount
recommended in this prefecture as a yearly application for two crops
grown is:
Organic matter 3,711 to 4,640 lbs. per acre
Nitrogen 105 to 131 lbs. per acre
Phosphorus 35 to 44 lbs. per acre
Potassium 56 to 70 lbs. per acre
These amounts, on the basis of the table, p. 214, are nearly
sufficient for a crop of thirty bushels of wheat, followed by one of
thirty bushels of rice, the phosphorus being in excess and the
potassium not quite enough, supposing none to be derived from other
sources.
At the Nara hotel, one of the beautiful Japanese inns where we
stopped, our room opened upon a second story veranda from which one
looked down upon a beautiful, tiny lakelet, some twenty by eighty
feet, within a diminutive park scarcely more than one hundred by two
hundred feet, and the lakelet had its grassy, rocky banks over-hung
with trees and shrubs planted in all the wild disorder and beauty of
nature; bamboo, willow, fir, pine, cedar, red-leaved maple, catalpa,
with other kinds, and through these, along the shore, wound a
woodsy, well trodden, narrow footpath leading from the inn to a half
hidden cottage apparently quarters for the maids, as they were
frequently passing to and fro. A suggestion of how such wild beauty
is brought right to the very doors in Japan may be gained from Fig.
232, which is an instance of parking effect on a still smaller scale
than that described.
On the morning of July 6th, with two men for each of our rickshas,
we left the Yaami hotel for the Kyoto Experiment station, some two
miles to the southwest of the city limits. As soon as we had entered
upon the country road we found ourselves in a procession of cart men
each drawing a load of six large covered receptacles of about ten
gallons capacity, and filled with the city's waste. Before reaching
the station we had passed fifty-two of these loads, and on our
return the procession was still moving in the same direction and we
passed sixty-one others, so that during at least five hours there
had moved over this section of road leading into the country, away
from the city, not less than ninety tons of waste; along other
roadways similar loads were moving. These freight carts and those
drawn by horses and bullocks were all provided with long racks
similar to that illustrated in Fig. 108, page 197, and when the load
is not sufficient to cover the full length it is always divided
equally and placed near each end, thus taking advantage of the
elasticity of the body to give the effect of springs, lessening the
draft and the wear and tear,
One of the most common commodities coming into the city along the
country roads was fuel from the hill lands, in split sticks tied in
bundles as represented in Fig. 224; as bundles of limbs twenty-four
to thirty inches, and sometimes four to six feet, long; and in the
form of charcoal made from trunks and stems one and a half inches to
six inches long, and baled in straw matting. Most of the draft
animals used in Japan are either cows, bulls or stallions; at least
we saw very few oxen and few geldings.
As early as 1895 the Government began definite steps looking to the
improvement of horse breeding, appointing at that time a commission
to devise comprehensive plans. This led to progressive steps finally
culminating in 1906 in the Horse Administration Bureau, whose duties
were to extend over a period of thirty years, divided into two
intervals, the first, eighteen and the second, twelve years. During
the first interval it is contemplated that the Government shall
acquire 1,500 stallions to be distributed throughout the country for
the use of private individuals, and during the second period it is
the expectation that the system will have completely renovated the
stock and familiarized the people with proper methods of management
so that matters may be left in their hands.
As our main purpose and limited time required undivided attention to
agricultural matters, and of these to the long established practices
of the people, we could give but little time to sight-seeing or even
to a study of the efforts being made for the introduction of
improved agricultural methods and practices. But in the very old
city of Kyoto, which was the seat of the Mikado's court from before
800 A. D. until 1868, we did pay a short visit to the Kiyomizu
temple, situated some three hundred yards south from the Yaami
hotel, which faces the Maruyaami park with its centuries-old giant
cherry tree, having a trunk of more than four feet through and wide
spreading branches, now much propped up to guard against accident,
as seen in Fig. 233. These cherry trees are very extensively used
for ornamental purposes in Japan with striking effect. The tree does
not produce an edible fruit, but is very beautiful when in full
bloom, as may be seen from Fig. 234. It was these trees that were
sent by the Japanese government to this country for use at
Washington but the first lot were destroyed because they were found
to be infested and threatened danger to native trees.
Kyoto stands amid surroundings of wonderful beauty, the site
apparently having been selected with rare acumen for its
possibilities in large landscape effects, and these have been
developed with that fullness and richness which the greatest artists
might be content to approach. We are thinking particularly of the
Kiyomizu-dera, or rather of the marvelous beauty of tree and foliage
which has overgrown it and swept far up and over the mountain
summit, leaving the temple half hidden at the base. No words, no
brush, no photographic art can transfer the effect. One must see to
feel the influence for which it was created, and scores of people,
very old and very young, nearly all Japanese, and more of them on
that day from the poorer rather than from the well-to-do class, were
there, all withdrawing reluctantly, like ourselves, looking
backward, under the spell. So potent and impressive was that
something from the great overshadowing beauty of the mountain, that
all along up the narrow, shop-lined street leading to the gateway of
the temple, seen in Fig. 235, the tiniest bits of park effect were
flourishing in the most impossible situations; and as Professor
Tokito and myself were coming away we chanced upon six little
roughly dressed lads laying out in the sand an elaborate little
park, quite nine by twelve feet. They must have been at it hours,
for there were ponds, bridges, tiny hills and ravines and much
planting in moss and other little greens. So intent on their task
were they that we stood watching full two minutes before our
presence attracted their attention, and yet the oldest of the group
must have been under ten years of age.
One partly hidden view of the temple is seen in Fig. 236, the dense
mountain verdure rising above and beyond it. And then too, within
the temple, as the peasant men and women came before the shrine and
grasped the long depending rope knocker, with the heavy knot in
front of the great gong, swinging it to strike three rings,
announcing their presence before their God, then kneeling to offer
prayers, one could not fail to realize the deep sincerity and faith
expressed in face and manner, while they were oblivious to all else.
No Christian was ever more devout and one may well doubt if any ever
arose from prayer more uplifted than these. Who need believe they
did not look beyond the imagery and commune with the Eternal Spirit?
A third view of the same temple, showing resting places beneath the
shade, which serve the purpose of lawn seats in our parks, is seen
in Fig. 237.
That a high order of the esthetic sense is born to the Japanese
people; that they are masters of the science of the beautiful; and
that there are artists among them capable of effective and
impressive results, is revealed in a hundred ways, and one of these
is the iris garden of Fig. 238. One sees it here in the bulrushes
which make the iris feel at home; in the unobtrusive semblance of a
log that seems to have fallen across the run; in the hard beaten
narrow path and the sore toes of the old pine tree, telling of the
hundreds that come and go; it is seen in the dress and pose of the
ladies, and one may be sure the photographer felt all that he saw
and fixed so well.
The vender of Oumi's lily that Margaret Johnson saw, is in Fig. 239.
There another is bartering for a spray of flowers, and thus one sold
the branch of red maple leaves in our room at the Nara inn. His
floral stands are borne along the streets pendant from the usual
carrying pole.
When returning to the city from the Kyoto Experiment Station several
fields of Japanese indigo were passed, growing in water under the
conditions of ordinary rice culture, Fig. 240 being a view of one of
these. The plant is Poligonum tinctoria, a close relative of the
smartweed. Before the importation of aniline and alizarin dyes,
which amounted in 1907 to 160,558 pounds and 7,170,320 pounds
respectively, the cultivation of indigo was much more extensive than
at present, amounting in 1897 to 160,460,000 pounds of the dried
leaves; but in 1906 the production had fallen to 58,696,000 pounds,
forty-five per cent of which was grown in the prefecture of
Tokushima in the eastern part of the island of Shikoku. The
population of this prefecture is 707,565, or 4.4 people to each of
the 159,450 acres of cultivated field, and yet 19,969 of these acres
bore the indigo crop, leaving more than five people to each
food-producing acre.
The plants for this crop are started in nursery beds in February and
transplanted in May, the first crop being cut the last of June or
first of July, when the fields are again fertilized, the stubble
throwing out new shoots and yielding a second cutting the last of
August or early September. A crop of barley may have preceded one of
indigo, or the indigo may be set following a crop of rice. Such
practice, with the high fertilization for every crop, goes a long
way toward supplying the necessary food. The dense population, too,
has permitted the manufacture of the indigo as a home industry among
the farmers, enabling them to exchange the spare labor of the family
for cash. The manufactured product from the reduced planting in 1907
was worth $1,304,610, forty-five per cent of which was the output of
the rural population of the prefecture of Tokushima, which they
could exchange for rice and other necessaries. The land in rice in
this prefecture in 1907 was 73,816 acres, yielding 114,380,000
pounds, or more than 161 pounds to each man, woman and child, and
there were 65,665 acres bearing other crops. Besides this there are
874,208 acres of mountain and hill land in the prefecture which
supply fuel, fuel ashes and green manure for fertilizer; run-off
water for irrigation; lumber and remunerative employment for service
not needed in the fields.
The journey was continued from Kyoto July 7th, taking the route
leading northeastward, skirting lake Biwa which we came upon
suddenly on emerging from a tunnel as the train left Otani. At many
places we passed waterwheels such as that seen in Fig. 241, all
similarly set, busily turning, and usually twelve to sixteen feet in
diameter but oftenest only as many inches thick. Until we had
reached Lake Biwa the valleys were narrow with only small areas in
rice. Tea plantations were common on the higher cultivated slopes,
and gardens on the terraced hillsides growing vegetables of many
kinds were common, often with the ground heavily mulched with straw,
while the wooded or grass-covered slopes still further up showed the
usual systematic periodic cutting. After passing the west end of the
lake, rice fields were nearly continuous and extensive. Before
reaching Hachiman we crossed a stream leading into the lake but
confined between levees more than twelve feet high, and we had
already passed beneath two raised viaducts after leaving Kusatsu.
Other crops were being grown side by side with the rice on similar
lands and apparently in rotation with it, but on sharp, narrow close
ridges twelve to fourteen inches high. As we passed eastward we
entered one of the important mulberry districts where the fields are
graded to two levels, the higher occupied with mulberry or other
crops not requiring irrigation, while the lower was devoted to rice
or crops grown in rotation with it.
On the Kisogawa, at the station of the same name, there were four
anchored floating water-power mills propelled by two pair of large
current wheels stationed fore and aft, each pair working on a common
axle from opposite sides of the mill, driven by the force of the
current flowing by.
At Kisogawa we had entered the northern end of one of the largest
plains of Japan, some thirty miles wide and extending forty miles
southward to Owari bay. The plain has been extensively graded to two
levels, the benches being usually not more than two feet above the
rice paddies, and devoted to various dry land crops, including the
mulberry. The soil is decidedly sandy in character but the mean
yield of rice for the prefecture is 37 bushels per acre and above
the average for the country at large. An analysis of the soils at
the sub-experiment station north of Nagoya shows the following
content of the three main plant food elements.
Nitrogen Phosphorus Potassium
Pounds per million
In paddy field
Soil 1520 769 805
Subsoil 810 756 888
In upland field
Soil 1060 686 1162
Subsoil 510 673 1204
The green manure crops on this plain are chiefly two varieties of
the "pink clover," one sowed in the fall and one about May 15th, the
first yielding as high as sixteen tons green weight per acre and the
other from five to eight tons.
On the plain distant from the mountain and hill land the stems of
agricultural crops are largely used as fuel and the fuel ashes are
applied to the fields at the rate of 10 kan per tan, or 330 pounds
per acre, worth $1.20, little lime, as such, being used.
In the prefecture of Aichi, largely in this plain, with an area of
cultivated land equal to about sixteen of our government townships,
there is a population of 1,752,042, or a density of 4.7 per acre,
and the number of households of farmers was placed at 211,033, thus
giving to each farmer's family an average of 1.75 acres, their chief
industries being rice and silk culture.
Soon after leaving the Agricultural Experiment Station of Aichi
prefecture at An Jo we crossed the large Yahagigawa, flowing between
strong levees above the level of the rice fields. Mulberries, with
burdock and other vegetables were growing upon all of the tables
raised one to two, feet above the rice paddies, and these features
continued past Okasaki, Koda, and Kamagori, where the hills in many
places had been recently cut clean of the low forest growth and
where we passed many large stacks of pine boughs tied in bundles for
fuel. After passing Goyu sixty-five miles east from Nagoya, mulberry
was the chief crop. Then came a plain country which had been graded
and leveled at great cost of labor, the benches with their square
shoulders standing three to four feet above the paddy fields; and
after passing Toyohashi some distance we were surprised to cross a
rather wide section of comparatively level land overgrown with pine
and herbaceous, plants which had evidently been cut and recut many
times. Beyond Futagawa rice fields were laid out on what appeared to
be, similar land but with soil a little finer in texture, and still
further along were other flat areas not cultivated.
At Maisaka quite half the cultivated fields appear to be in mulberry
with ponds of lotus plants in low places, while at Hamamatsu the
rice fields are interspersed with many square-shouldered tables
raised three to four feet and occupied with mulberry or vegetables.
As we passed upon the flood plain of the Tenryugawa, with its nearly
dry bed of coarse gravel half a mile wide, the dwellings of farm
villages were, many of them surrounded with nearly solid,
flat-topped, trimmed evergreen hedges nine to twelve feet high, of
the umbrella pine, forming beautiful and effective screens.
At Nakaidzumi we had left the mulberry orchards for those of tea,
rice still holding wherever paddies could be formed. Here, too, we
met the first fields of tobacco, and at Fukuroi and Homouchi large
quantities of imported Manchurian bean cake were stacked about the
station, having evidently been brought by rail. At Kanaya we passed
through a long tunnel and were in the valley of the Oigawa, crossing
the broad, nearly dry stream over a bridge of nineteen long spans
and were then in the prefecture of Shizuoka where large fields of
tea spread far up the hillsides, covering extensive areas, but after
passing the next station, and for seventeen miles before reaching
Shizuoka we traversed a level stretch of nearly continuous rice
fields.
The Shizuoka Experiment Station is devoting special attention to the
interests of horticulture, and progress has already been made in
introducing new fruits of better quality and in improving the native
varieties. The native pears and peaches, as we found them served on
the hotel tables in either China or Japan, were not particularly
attractive in either texture or flavor, but we were here permitted
to test samples of three varieties of ripe figs of fine flavor and
texture, one of them as large as a good sized pear. Three varieties
of fine peaches were also shown, one unusually large and with
delicate deep rose tint, including the flesh. If such peaches could
be canned so as to retain their delicate color they would prove very
attractive for the table. The flavor and texture of this peach were
also excellent, as was the case with two varieties of pears.