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Ey Hs KING:

FARMERS

OF

POmnryY CENTURIES

OR

PERMANENT AGRICULTURE IN CHINA,
KOREA AND JAPAN

\) fabs

F:’H»’ KING, D. Sc.

Formerly Professor of Agricultural Physics in the University of Wisconsin
and
Chief of Division of Soil Management, U. S. Department of Agriculture

Author of “The Soil’; ‘Irrigation and Drainage”; “‘Physics of
Agriculture” and “Ventilation for Dwellings,
Rural Schools and Stables.’’

Mapison, WIS.
MRS. F. H. KING
1911

All rights reserved

COPYRIGHT, I9II
By Mrs. F. H. KING

]c1A303290

PREFACE

By Dre dase oS ARpEN:

We have not yet gathered up the experience of mankind
in the tilling of the earth; yet the tilling of the earth is
the bottom condition of civilization. If we are to assemble
all the forces and agencies that make for the final conquest
of the planet, we must assuredly know how it is that all
the peoples in all the places have met the problem of pro-
ducing their sustenance out of the soil.

We have had few great agricultural travelers and few
books that describe the real and significant rural conditions.
Of natural history travel we have had very much; and of
accounts of sights and events perhaps we have had too
many. There are, to be sure, famous books of study and
travel in rural regions, and some of them, as Arthur
Young’s ‘‘Travels in France,’’ have touched social and
political history; but for the most part, authorship of
agricultural travel is yet undeveloped. The spirit of
scientific inquiry must now be taken into this field, and all
earth-conquest must be compared and the results be given
to the people that work.

This was the point of view in which I read Professor
King’s manuscript. It is the writing of a well-trained
observer who went forth not to find diversion or to depict
Scenery and common wonders, but to study the actual con-
ditions of life of agricultural peoples. We in North
America are wont to think that we may instruct all the
world in agriculture, because our agricultural wealth is
great and our exports to less favored peoples have been
heavy; but this wealth is great because our soil is fertile

iv Preface.

and new, and in large acreage for every person. We have
really only begun to farm well. The first condi-
tion of farming is to maintain fertility. This condition
the oriental peoples have met, and they have solved it in
their way. We may never adopt particular methods, but
we can profit vastly by their experience. With the in-
crease of personal wants in recent time, the newer countries
may never reach such density of population as have Japan
and China; but we must nevertheless learn the first lesson
in the conservation of natural resources, which are the
resources of the land. This is the message that Professor
King brought home from the East.

This book on agriculture should have good effect in
establishing understanding between the West and the East.
If there could be such an interchange of courtesies and in-
quiries on these themes as is suggested by Professor King,
as well as the interchange of athletics and diplomacy and
commerce, the common productive people on both sides
should gain much that they could use; and the results in
amity should be incalculable.

It is a misfortune that Professor King could not have
lived to write the concluding ‘‘ Message of China and Japan
to the World.’’ It would have been a careful and forceful
summary of his study of eastern conditions. At the
moment when the work was going to the printer, he was
called suddenly to the endless journey and his travel here
was left incomplete. But he bequeathed us a new piece
of literature, to add to his standard writings on soils and
on the applications of physics and devices to agriculture.
Whatever he touched he illuminated.

Ly. H. Bamey,

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE
EMVPROBNORLGM: -o..c 23 SA ice 2 Stee he or coe ere ee anes Seok 1
[TRS GLEVE SiG. ORY UAPAGN alors Yas trs ahs ele oak als Se tolerates 14
DS GRAVE IsA NS OR. CLEEN Avie tiers cess (ola ential sm che hear 48
EE Co) ONG KONG = AN “CANTON © o0's S cisco ese eur tie cares 60
IVs OP pe IKI ANG WEST” IRIVER: 3 's.. < sec cu eleners ae ciees 81
V. EXTENT OF CANALIZATION AND SURFACE FITTING OF
MESSED) p20 oo ives nde cl oh s ERIN Pa «0s 20s WeroaateR shay Seat eee ne eer 97
’ VI; Some CusSToMS oF THE COMMON PEOPLE...........00. 118
VII. THe FUEL PROBLEM, BUILDING AND TEXTILE MATE-
POA) acs ah creyn tdi siay dom 4) Saar ee Bais Da arate te a Mar aRearn oy a ee 137
EE SANE ACERS Nr ALotss sed ste ns deb. as 6 einen ee aad Rie 167
XS Ee LATION. Or - WEASIIS., sou, Sisere.. c epee Sei 133
Xe IN. PH- SHANTUNG., PROVINCE 2), 7.kc S@Sk S hse Po aoe ee bude 216
XI. ORieENTALS CRowp Boru TIME AND SPACE..........-.. 261
Re Ee OULU RE EN PEA MORTNINT ¢ o.qcn has Se 0:5. piace creekt ole ats 271
AG 6 2S Ke AO DOREY. Sr eee. oman ata ap te uales vehee tus herd Sigs 311
PAN <0 AEs AAS: PAPDDISIRY ara tise Aino c's Sa Sow Oe Ghee aad Seeger tans 323
DEVE AR OUT UDR MS ION Speen atone a shris,'s) tet aiaee es labo @ ofdsk. s proeeee er 330
ea ea VLAN CET CRSA SANDY (ROR Mote tars: Saclay aies,beo Siniwtnrev ea ows 345
OY TOP] 85558 O15 ee 0 Res B20 aA aR ee aE 376

Y MESSAGE OF CHINA AND JAPAN TO THE WORLD.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Ro veratcerol SerOLress Oren. hectare setts ccm lee © ee ees Frontispiece
No. Page
i Lady awieaLlerexCOSLUMC rr pieieneieicnelsrcrals ore Biskeataie siheoscPoeeurteN eRe 16
Oe eG ON Sein yi Neays ow OOCECHmSMOCS a scare oie ei eiieie ei steno cieler sie seniors 18
32) POE WING ‘Seaweeds lini. nets -nccvene Sane ees erate eres 4 tos gio ansasticbeeaneneperens 20
Ae GOWNS ISOCAWECUC sn, nusas eteeeucle, oo aoee otter eins oie atcticde tava ceiene ore eee te hereon ene 20
ie ee orenised. pearl cOrchang: sin iwwiinltel..steps siete seca ene = hve Nolesaacn ousneus ts 22
6. Pear trees at AkKashi Experiment Station. Japan............ Ze,
( weearse PLOveched =D yapaper DAS sas =). ces oes ses ouakel sree ss Ae aaeeias 25
Se SLLeecesain COUmEnY mVllaeess Tawa chelate m1 +s la citeueieel cial cites (ene enteurelee 24
OPC rowGed. StORC a sate ee ile ore eee R er ote he ey aaa eee A at ae nae SRR : 2D
10}; Chinesescountryy villazeralomes camailey tere. teicic easy ete eae neonate 26
ii eJapaneser ricer Pad@Gies cannes cols eiewotis ath scsusisashelatedepers sielegsioee 28
Qe. MICO MELAS Tm IGOR EAM c Fas hert were a cscanereae teh wiicuay ct aire tomeer opel shemeltellny amore 29
te RiGee nelds sini vanecs er delice, © hima ussite cis ion eects stants 30
14. Readjusted rice fields in Japan.......... Su Na motertortemeteneeeaere wee 32
Hace IN paddies; sClOpsmome tue AGiIKeScreyeleivoreiencisiey teastickeraleden 33
ie Crowded) peachy oOrehia Rayan. sls 2 i) ove one list wens, ie slave odode eit a tekeaes 3
17. Cucumbers trellised, over greens...... ad op Snaals ihe tsos Neha ue eee 36
se “Claas wie Oaeb ina “iwabainee Chveses 65 Ga odbosadoce oa nc sf latroctette 38
POS APTINCE® CHINCHS A 5 SiS eee en) eB ey Ree oh Sone li ened eee ease eet samraye 39
2h, (Panwa econ votrol aiorojohe lyeuilloliavess delechalyosobbaancsanese¢ 41
Bibs Meee NY eacaaors ene Odial seb 4 gine deoe oon ocd anes a0 ca 5 5)5 >
22 esapanese: veretable™ market. spqicye siete siete, shone ele) ekeememn nats! eet: +4
Pe UNOCrACeGds CALGen sired ty SNS Asal citet cieleieite tentials espiewene aie antatvelte 46
24l, (Giehyes) ow Aan “Clalli¢i (Gluingloss sobconouc0d nadie Mei aeweite Aoiee 49
Day (Che hWeS aera Singha Gach (Colas Soo ses oC ooo ado ils 51
Yo Graves! ol shiver Dank “nd ani Sad ene icre ele! Sie getharenaics aeons D2
PASE vi eTKMCetsibead halmee oer el nian eG LE eeHitn in oka eiere alguciololn's ond cloudec Oee-b-6 G4 Sic 5. 54
Biey, al Maw eantl hy meres mob ipy role Tu Ween ty ene Slane Gc oc f ase Be ea nde Siedetene o¢
Ok Hdetnah ores eOLUA EC uce pear a ai blore Gp ticudaneD Gibco moro De mest oo. 5c Dd
Bxg > “(Chath yeh Cleveronsaiiere WS Dints oa o lb clelolbeorteo b SORTS ie a acre 8c Gabens Seems 56
Ait) CETOUD, (Ol. STASS-CLOWNM, LTAVES ys .\.larcte sree eee etgin os \nie eee A8
a2) wiheelbarrow treishitersn sm) (@iiiraaee soc tcis onere lence) lens de buccowe of
aS Nain | LUMEN Der. ins) CHAT 6 255s So siesres too ueile| ale © eiedave siaeuonere als a
Ale MURATA NTIS: VRP LUGM oct fa jos ct wi se Mbie coterie ona ave eltel © joie ibllons Wee) Gunes eee nats 64
95 “Scene in florist’s garden, Hongkon@.... 3.2. 5 == = ne 6 ee 65
SCH MG ArGen ine ELA Ne avi ailleiyaeuemepeueites easel coral <ulrei-li-l ciotaleiviolom=nriele l= Unulemel= 66
37. Receptacles for. human waste..........:..s2+-- Leone yekomonatels 67
38. Water piped from mountain side to garden........--+--- 3 69
Stoel ol nips Keerabe raph ekeal ~ epelssaighale pidrd aiG)o-cuplG ied oc) bio Gia. A asericr Sachs 5 71
AOS) Wale Ty AT GEM rcce eee) che cima.) ite enced ico notreneiioit> ly) ieMeneiiieme linge toms 73
At. “Boat load of nummany waster onc. sctsee « ere Oe eRaset cee ie a tohiaaers 74
ADO SO inmMese . TOO DP OwWeli ena roe eke i teinae semen ohlag nev eenlneke siteneatodere 79
42. Mulberry field fertilized with mud .........0...+--++- overs 84
AU) iMvalllavaak ula aslighhiee i 5u. 000 Aula ne. co dow ooo Cc Ast, oe sicberaits 86
JU 1telfol Core apKaoy Ruotol onkeyrnhars inky poo dnoedeoen ooo un a ou oes 88
46. Fork shaped from limbs of tree.........- OTe ohh ROO NIE ae sae &9
47. Uandscape at Samshui. near Canton.......... Sy cael eiensioe 91
AS! “Winter row pears. ahter TiCee sie. @ cle eperenele!*) + eee stokeneuche Rene 92
49> > Mields flooded) ang? Lertilized! Wor) TGC spes-fotche) one elects) <n ne rie 4
Nol MAGE Ope. Mebitetere tars ao Giolc aul obo cio DIO Git. o Chto a o.u 0 clio A ae 95
51. Map of canals in Chekiang province..........-++-- ames 98

52 - Map ‘of 2700, miles) of canalwin).). 2-2 .)se 255 ie soi vaevatemewawete 106

Map showing plains and Grand canal

Inst of Illustrations.

Miewc across ‘valleys: ior “ricer fieldes Ja) sons ok ys tne

Terraced and flooded rice fields
Graded fields
Graded fields
Collecting reservoir
Compost pits beside path
Trenched fields
Shanghai ecarryail
Sewing circle
Eating lunch
Stone mill
Laying warp
Dye pits
Whipping cotton
Salted cabbage

Chinese clover

Vegetable market

On oe) (0)y Oe) a feel ehiet.e) eee bed, is); s)\0 levee 10 lene
Fie celgen el ede: 2) 0 6: eee (0) "es av a, else), 6) 0 io (eyiey euieh eile lieis: le? wile, ef esis! eel a is
pis) 2) 2 fel eo, 0) 2! ‘se! elie. ehiepie le ie! 's) Sie) (eue mie) (ss enn ielten = (=)) =) Iw. a) «) (eral ie) tele
| © elas) ies evie je ‘pb \6) 6 (0) e's) sp =) ip) (ep) eh wie et iel'e! fe) (e) (0 (e! 16) (610) eel a
2 Tee) \@) ie 0-9, /e\ (a! \e) jee: 16) Maem le) alge ie) eee io! ew) 6s (es 4, en (ele
2 8) 6" erie. 18's je) levee) je ‘eye! lw, let's oe, we) es amin) (emimnie) faleeliier is; (ef ele| iba) (al of ay a
o 6-9, 6) Os ee ee) wihe’ (oi. e) wi (em eliotn /ecule a lets celvatelie lefiu! eve. o we.«
© 0; oa: @ Bl fe 086! 0) see) e have ive allel e)' 6: (eh siieiiet in pial et's) slips (edhe) (oe) eile
oe 8 eyes es) 616) © 04.0) eves lela) valle Me. a) s) wy eligiialte ete Tetlisslsy a) e)cnl kellelih ce ke
5) 6 ye!) e fe: 6) fe, ee: 0) 4 ©. ee. 0. (0 6.6, anie: a alem eltel/ele/e) (mio) «inet a evel af\el etlal sie a
ool 2 fe sw oe © 0) oe) Ss) ee (6) Hl lee elle es eee) ©)» eilely set va’ alleen eael 6) tel tei~<
@ (00) '@''6 6 e «\'e) © ¢ 2 ag © «= ‘e) 6) © -ev'e' 0/6, 0) eel)» e)Ne) lal eile lei te) o)(o fe ele aliel «i ielia
© (ey ey’e, @) ‘a: '0. 0. ese, (0) ‘«; 9, (¢! (eo) (ol e/a) Osieh ice tel ml et Clini elem el aula was altel alta

Oh 6) 'o. \e. se! (e) “eva 0) 6 ow (0S 6.0.10) 6 (eee ete t a ae ierer ele lero ie (se elekulniala
oO.) |8 ce) \e. 6) 0: a 0) '* 0 © fele) 6) s \6) 6, fe) ele) wife mies sehiewelatene) al nis) 0) ids cele s

© 8 -0},0\ @) 6 | (0) ©) 'e jee |e) o \ee) 0) 6) ene ashen 6) Ole anemia) aye lets) lv) a aale ©

) Dfo) ep ts len 0X0) a0 Leone eR RP Er iGreen ioicenis Aiko Gh cla iclokt cho 6.6 bc

Charcoal halls

Gia! (s'@ (e\ 0) 0 = em) Cr let je eike a, ©) © (sw Ye 6! a iam) ie! je) oie) wile) a) /e}(e) (elle) (e) 6) (a

CoOuUnitEy Womans s In AweMibery G@GESSm roses eee ea eee aetna

Boat. loads of EWE. c20 eh Ree ee es a one eae

Cotton’ -stemi: wel ssc, < Sekt oeat eed isi cea ieee eines cece tencr cee

Rice straw fuel

FAS Le @) [0 nO).0) 0,0 fe: vw Le) Celle cone, felts er (et oe vereleliehie ele. les eiiat wi ela) stia! fetal

Steaming Gea. leaves”... sdisysh section os lesck Melloroneen tote atcnaaner ey hae Serre
Dairy. herd) .oF “water * bulllalopeys.,-. 4 sien cvatee ciseeraeai sesreeeneu snaked

Water buitalos and (Cali) reese. acho a eno rers eoene ros teens

4 Eh alow 00), 28 Che EL (2) ee rere MOND aG.G So & Ice cemerd netic oo is

Hlowseboakt) on Chinese” canale. 2 sci. «i. Sifal S kere

MOGest CUiLGI Oty Ll STOeSiecpeecte eye sishene te roncittars cite stray alles oectireiren hohe
Rime Sands soak, DOU, SUely se cweereiere cece oieteusvels eictete Svevteye, Stats
PIM ESR AMUSO yey Everest eke co oneneR com tatne Telco eve’ Veifepie’ Se oee: sce settee metas Rompe:
DIOR SPASS UCU rake tore cuka te suet omeaeeet oer a uation ei enciie a, eatin oaths
IMAoliaAniSeAEWEL. We oc weit oa cst a ccagememen ste tate es foe AND. ect th dl oe en
Riel Scommincres Ero miaet vee MSH een tois sacl a,0: cet eiel «is sles ocee austen epee
Millet thacehe vanced LASSE Repeats tes steno ten eee tw eke Ie i theven nieve

Air-cried earth brick
House building
Brick kiln
Fertilizing with canal mud
Stairways used in earrying mud from eanal
Mulberry orchard

So slau mel ec tere) le is)e) 6) 6) «) @ 6/0] is) ¢) (e)/e) 16s) 6! 1s, 0) efi eam e m

Sis pe hs) (ete, ass ele elie) oY a6 ee je © he = 4/6) ea ja) ele jay .e).@ yaa Ke ae orm

Cel Le Ral elle: lelledel a celles aflefanie, \6.(0. 16.6) .¢° | \o'l'e!le: (eutele) 0) 0) 61 8) eye) we we elie manieal ol

@, a S10) ©) 10.10. 0, \@..e) © 6) © 6.6) (0) a) @2.0)/e) 6) es) oare) 0 6

* \°nieh ee ees) 6) se 8) «eo ove (ey's: (oj) a) ole. /e.'e 0) "20, | 6/0) oF m6) .0) @ 8)

Siralresie ics sin: Cara ailey MU cots cee ae chen twas, cud sh cgabes ries tare Skiemobemaics autor
GIMIMES eM CUI ATO US ae geerehe teksts nc ce keys: ousine sve como wal arte abe aera omen etal roieh exerete

Onis LOA. AOls CSS Mio eS cs shelaie: das pleccistens 4s.
Carr vais COMPOS te Lariteiherchstoauce tae tat «chat at oneis taverelvattekabel ue

ceereeeoe

Gomp Ost. MUO aegsc ci teen tee ekaneieaaits, euerateney sl agahetede heel otosela |e velisia
Commosty piesa Gi Glomee ere ces oe cs cr seer es orus cel shsolreter tela) sus arte caverns
(OroN ad AKO TSB hater reer eit iy ty Pat eet ers Glorcr REE IGLAR eras er oR cOe Sera eet eu Rema ee tone
IBM hinEellon aes (kom. UCKOK a omowmeib bola onda ec cao Oo

INieeCkeinngs. Chae Wahl Gel, on scam obocdo coos CoO nu OMe Sao Sion
OMMVOSE: BUSUAC) ab eee lets pcos ss. tile) Shay ste) (es al sanene! ohelce aie
TMI heey NOs IKE Be ae Stole & CG DOE Gkoln DIOLG ora > a hn BE Sola
NiLen abodes” [HORNA ihoy TSiaehaoe Ge oo ag 6a cae eaten

INERT. SHEN CBIR TEEN As eke olginio bo Gcduaclo 0 Ainge 0 Omloo oO orc
TISTOBIAC Ey CRIB Eh x is ONS sueia a oneicte Crees madieeo Excic oc 6 Dice uloteore aoe
Recepracles: cor nummy) SWwaSte jel. 6) Sistine wile setsyls © lolle @/oheiie) elle :

SLOLAC Mik sO STG) UATE eters aie eheyaile

(Coarey tinge: FORMS ore MTG Sink, sooo 0 coo pO Oo Om Ooo
Applying liquid.manure with dipper............--.+.+++:-
Tae DD, GES ES 2B ORE eit, DARN RA erine ai 08 oe ee cna Sot SECIS CC ACRE
WAVOTIOUS ATS SH). MeLIN eI eae UIO AN Poway alee oloauoue eo <fepe auc abalave le) oie
ROGAN ~ ite NAO HUttie MENG G Jigme © om cco Ob Gad 0 6 ClO ;

Chart issued by Nara Experiment Station,
Compost house, Nara Experiment Station,

Japan
Japan

Se 0) (we) eye je

List of Illustrations.

View in Reforestation Tract, Tsingtao, China........ eveienene
Eelorestation,’ "Usingtao, ‘Ching. ois 54:0. cube. coats oad eee
BHetqrestanion, .Tsinetiao. Chimay... 8. socecn ect eee
Wild yellow rose, Shantunig, -Chima@sc. 23420. 0 o. 66 bb bos een
sShantung plow} China ......;... SSIS as) oh Bical (or eua Tre RereLeralioneteveialciee
A RLS D UIT MOM LUMI Le eh asia oie evade Nise sAe GOS, eke ee Cee
SOils Erosion 2 ini" Sliaitune vic ois s.5.0 oe ee ek en as Boe eke
WEEE CO MEIOIS: yi oact sic. spsusciteakte tiaras Hiaueca epermie aan thore cle eet eens
WINGS: farm = yee ee haa ica © ee Shea eee bs hay Pet Ds
Wihteat in? Shanivine.. @hina? .2:.7% 28 dec cide a asce oct ene
and 129. Veliicles: of forty centuries: 2.06 82 ee s00 canes e
Wihleats 11a Sls ame OWS ics Sas eh dee a oe ore ee tee
NGGGCER MT: ie ie te.cnokeue cm whe Oaldodes: oodcaaenetel eRe et WSs. ovo eisverein Sheen
EL OCMUS PSEA ek stan ater osha ese kuch ey Cie eee Sa aca ae
PAASTCECH, -COMMOSE (SbQUCKS eo) clater ors ee eoale aS suse k ale Saya ete otto
Omer Where Them ayes. WiOLkss ae e-cicnMoloiic coeione. eaecsieio oe sichevons
WARES Vib AC CLS TRO reise ecateraioters a tosulemd ces ER ae
Slomexsiini Nl yous a covencuanaas, s Sean aus, ord arse siare) ab ovebreh chen ot evan RE eo eee
Peanut cakes. and paper demijohn: 55 2.0... dce%s. cs ee eed ewe
Pulverized, “uman-GxCreta: ous ose 5.8 Sida |S 2 cok 00s eee wee o ccateeenale
Me Tyteilledybry ee, 5 ie irem aoe a vega rosie eee G ores iokes Sahar ary arate eaten a OURe Mena Monee arene
Foot-power pump and grain in beds............. aretayercvene
Wiheatineswhich <cotton is planted. <2. .icct<'s = sielene chor enerebereres
Same: field, wheat “harvested... ci ics ove de coe areye onehetets
Ma Et TE. LERODS iy -siss sud) Fo usisreanso. Bersvensteuece islel enever es) altel oka che ehnee open ents
GECCTHy HAATHETUMI OR ene scetiecu Meme odes atiet nada ai el OL sleet ege yes Orso omel Me meen nes
Nuliiples crops «to. Teh ibis Chan ae css we ole wie alos ers sneietsuonevenere
Cruceinies wheat SKG Obs. ves. corse ars! 0s Goce oteleraneveleteleve: areronemNenenate 36
Compost’. ‘slrelter! “and? “pie penis si) sce ei aie slic wuslavece cele sheuera ate
Suggested (Gomservetion 25 «cic 2 oo 0 6 ate me leis es aicheastiotoustone as
Kiee: elds til -SAWAM ec corse, ace, too, 8 Shere ocomererelal oboe aie lo eeccol ere ake
Ricestrel dss iG hima 212 5 2%. epcteustecers oe ecelere ere edekeio ereiemer mebanens
Perraced) Tee: MiEldas 2 Papaya eases cen’, thei cay alors tote alee onsususlereucns
Steep narrow valley with rice paddies. ...........c.s.c~
Hee plants between mice paddies... 2... 3... .cn-6- tevotcrereke
Waternelons: between Trice paddies; Soar-i5 ite.) <i. «0 ete ete censor
Watermelons: ang Cano she cecisnd © ec, eomenchove elensiev Oley ofevei els Sao 6
Tone Sot, Mins eV alle ccs icsyererere)s «eke: euensia at eile Leje’ollercerowe Sreieret neler
PALIN MNS /SCAELOMNG, Ses rete oclene: aia levelets ter stelle el eueuetore co) eichetenencitener ste -
1 dluhvay oni eee ONKOL ewes Pec CuMeae Cl es cape RON ican noes C COR cleNO Bic. Go.do 6.06 2
INMEPSE HY TICES LW OUSe a oid aie acs occ uehel cin aera teh elton enue Gass sulsmenoiererecuencitele
Ramos ane DIGWEd s MGlGE niu cna. scua clots) otokeioh oho ionchstorsuotolets Socc
REVORVINCH WiO OG Eis WARM O We trope ts cies tele ce re eel ereten at anh cnten enero toiantomeat tne
\Aouaarsy sy ov NNW aye Me ENCES Maia ptr ceo OimerOlOO aC iD OO GUD OOO OO.CO ar =<
ramsp kare tims riee! ce) Waco wie oe, once otevenel<lotelel cee eke SbEG
Transplanting rice in rainy weather..........-..... Saleen
Mransplamrtine mca lin (SApAD)...7 oi > + a) @\eiete clare! sels, «lvtvlinieleloleiel
AN S0 TCS BREN 6 to inaolchcne Glenna D OREO Oe Coon Gt o.olho Caro met
Boat load of grass for green manure......... aye shereioiolerete
Applying chaff <as fertilizer) oo. 0.02. cece cmeelc ses Reo.
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Iist of Illustrations.

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Equipment for soil studies, Imperial Agr. Experiment Station,

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INTRODUCTION.

A word of introduction is needed to place the reader at
the best view point from which to consider what is said in
the following pages regarding the agricuitural practices
and customs of China, Korea and Japan. It should be
borne in mind that the great factors which today charac-
terize, dominate and determine the agricultural and other
industrial operations of western nations were physical im-
possibilities to them one hundred years ago, and until then
had been so to all people.

It should be observed, too, that the United States as yet
is a nation of but few people widely scattered over a broad
virgin land with more than twenty acres to the support of
every man, woman and child, while the people whose prac-
tices are to be considered are toiling in fields tilled more
than three thousand years and who have barely one acre
per capita, more than one-half of which is uncultivable
mountain land.

Again, the great movement of cargoes of feeding stuffs
and mineral fertilizers to western Europe and to the east-
ern United States began less than a century ago and has
never been possible as a means of maintaining soil fertility
in China, Korea or Japan, nor can it be continued indefi-
nitely in either Europe or America. These importations
are for the time making tolerable the waste: of plant food
_ materials through our modern systems of sewage disposal
and other faulty practices; but the Mongolian races have
held all such wastes, both urban and rural, and- many
others which we ignore, sacred to agriculture, applying
them to their fields.

4 Introduction.

We are to consider some of the practices of a virile race
of some five hundred millions of people who have an unim-
paired inheritance moving with the momentum acquired
through four thousand years; a people morally and intel-
lectually strong, mechanically capable, who are awakening
to a utilization of all the possibilities which science and in-
vention during recent years have brought to western na-
tions; and a people who have long dearly loved peace but
who can and will fight in self defense if compelled to do so.

We had long desired to stand face to face with Chinese
and Japanese farmers; to walk through their fields and to
learn by seeing some of their methods, appliances and
practices which centuries of stress and experience have led
these oldest farmers in the world to adopt. We desired
to learn how it is possible, after twenty and perhaps thirty
or even forty centuries, for their soils to be made to pro-
duce sufficiently for the maintenance of such dense popu-
lations as are living now in these three countries. We
have now had this opportunity and almost every day we
were instructed, surprised and amazed at the conditions
and practices which confronted us whichever way we
turned; instructed in the ways and extent to which these
nations for centuries have been and are conserving and
utilizing their natural resources, surprised at the magni-
tude of the returns they are getting from their fields, and
amazed at the amount of efficient human labor cheerfully
given for a daily wage of five cents and their food, or for
fifteen cents, United States currency, without food.

The three main islands of Japan in 1907 had a popu-
lation of 46,977,003 maintained on 20,000 square miles of
cultivated field. This is at the rate of more than three
people to each acre, and of 2,349 to each square mile; and
yet the total agricultural imports into Japan in 1907 ex-
ceeded the agricultural exports by less than one dollar per
capita. If the cultivated land of Holland is estimated at
but one-third of her total area, the density of her popula-
tion in 1905 was, on this basis, less than one-third that of
Japan in her three main islands. At the same time Japan

Density of Population. 3

is feeding 69 horses and 56 cattle, nearly all laboring ani-
mals, to each square mile of cultivated field, while we were
feeding in 1900 but 30 horses and mules per same area,
these being our laboring animals.

As coarse food transformers Japan was maintaining
16,500,000 domestic fowl, 825 per square mile, but only one
for almost three of her people. We were maintaining, in
1900, 250,600,000 poultry, but only 387 per square mile of
cultivated field and yet more than three for each person.
Japan’s coarse food transformers in the form of swine,
goats and sheep aggregated but 13 to the square mile and
provided but one of these units for each 180 of her people;
while in the United States in 1900 there were being main-
tained, as transformers of grass and coarse grain into meat
and milk, 95 cattle, 99 sheep and 72 swine per each square
mile of improved farms. In this reckoning each of the
cattle should be counted as the equivalent of perhaps five
of the sheep and swine, for the transforming power of the
dairy cow is high. On this basis we are maintaining at
the rate of more than 646 of the Japanese units per square
mile, and more than five of these to every man, woman and
child, instead of one to every 180 of the population, as is
the case in Japan.

Correspondingly accurate statistics are not accessible for
China but in the Shantung province we talked with a
farmer having 12 in his family and who kept one donkey,
one cow, both exclusively laboring animals, and two pigs
on 2.5 acres of cultivated land where he grew wheat, millet,
sweet potatoes and beans. Here is a density of popula-
tion equal to 3,072 people, 256 donkeys, 256 cattle and 512
swine per square mile. In another instance where the hold-
ing was one and two-thirds acres the farmer had 10 in his
family and was maintaining one donkey and one pig, giv-
ing to this farm land a maintenance capacity of 3,840 peo-
ple, 384 donkeys and 384 pigs to the square mile, or 240
people, 24 donkeys and 24 pigs to one of our forty-acre
farms which our farmers regard too small for a single
family. The average of seven Chinese holdings which we

4 Introduction.

visited and where we obtained similar data indicates a
maintenance capacity for those lands of 1,783 people, 212
cattle or donkeys and 399 swine,—1,995 consumers and 399
rough food transformers per square mile of farm land.
These statements for China represent strictly rural popu-
lations. The rural population of the United States in 1900
was placed at the rate of 61 per square mile of improved
farm land and there were 30 horses and mules. In Japan
the rural population had a density in 1907 of 1,922 per
square mile, and of horses and cattle together 125.

The population of the large island of Chungming in the
mouth of the Yangtse river, having an area of 270 square
miles, possessed, according to the official census of 1902, a
density of 3,700 per square mile and yet there was but one
large city on the island, hence the population is largely
rural.

It could not be other than a matter of the highest indus-
trial, educational and social importance to ali nations if
there might be brought to them a full and accurate account
of all those conditions which have made it possible for such
dense populations to be maintained so largely upon the
products of Chinese, Korean and Japanese soils. Many of
the steps, phases and practices through which this evolu-
tion has passed are irrevocably buried in the past but such
remarkable maintenance efficiency attained centuries ago
and projected into the present with little apparent decad-
ence merits the most profound study and the time is fully
ripe when it should be made. Living as we are in the
morning of a century of transition from isolated to cosmo-
politan national hfe when profound readjustments. indus-
trial, educational and social, must result, such an investi-
gation cannot be made too soon. It is high time for each
nation to study the others and by mutual agreement and
co-operative effort, the results of such studies should he-
come available to all concerned, made so in the spirit that
each should become coordinate and mutually helpful com-
ponent factors in the world’s progress.

Need of Mutual Understanding. 5

One very appropriate and immensely helpful means for
attacking this problem, and which should prove mutually
helpful to citizen and state, would be for the higher edu-
cational institutions of all nations, instead of exchanging
courtesies through their baseball teams, to send _ select
bodies of their best students under competent leadership
and by international agreement, both east and west, organ-
izing therefrom investigating bodies each containing com-
ponents of the eastern and western civilization and whose
purpose it should be to study specifically set problems.
Such a movement well conceived and directed, manned by
the most capable young men, should create an international
acquaintance and spread broadeast a body of important
knowledge which would develop as the young men mature
and contribute immensely toward world peace and world
progress. If some broad plan of imternational effort such
as is here suggested were organized the expense of mainte-
nance might well be met by diverting so much as is need-
ful from the large sums set aside for the expansion of
navies, for such steps as these, taken in the interests of
world uplift and world peace, could not fail to be more
efficacious and less expensive than increase in fighting
equipment. It would cultivate the spirit of pulling to-
gether and of a square deal rather than one of holding
aloof and of striving to gain unneighborly advantage.

Many factors and conditions conspire to give to the
farms and farmers of the Far East their high maintenance
efficiency and some of these may be succinctly stated. The
portions of China, Korea and Japan where dense popula-
tions have developed and are being maintained occupy ex-
ceptionally favorable geographic positions so far as these
influence agricultural production. Canton in the south of
China has the latitude of Havana, Cuba, while Mukden in
Manchuria, and northern Honshu in Japan are only as far
north as New York city, Chicago and northern California.
The United States les mainly between 50 degrees and 30
degrees of latitude while these three countries lie between
40 degrees and 20 degrees, some seven hundred miles

6 Introduction.

further south. This difference of position, giving them
longer seasons, has made it possible for them to devise
systems of agriculture whereby they grow two, three and
even four crops on the same piece of ground each year.
In southern China, in Formosa and in parts of Japan two
crops of rice are grown; in the Chekiang province there
may be a crop of rape, of wheat or barley or of windsor
beans or clover which is followed in midsummer by another
of cotton or of rice. In the Shantung province wheat or
barley in the winter and spring may be followed in summer
by large or small millet, sweet potatoes, soy beans or pea-
nuts. At Tientsin, 39° north, in the latitude of Cincinnati,
Indianapolis, and Springfield, Illinois, we talked with
a farmer who followed his crop of wheat on his small
holding with one of onions and the onions with cabbage,
realizing from the three crops at the rate of $163, gold, per
acre; and with another who planted Irish potatoes at the
earliest opportunity in the spring, marketing them when
small, and following these with radishes, the radishes with
cabbage, realizing from the three crops at the rate of $203
per acre.

Nearly 500,000,000 people are being maintained, chiefly
upon the products of an area smaller than the improved
farm lands of the United States. Complete a square on the
lines drawn from Chicago southward to the Gulf and west-
ward across Kansas, and there will be enclosed an area
greater than the cultivated fields of China, Korea and
Japan and from which five times our present population
are fed.

The rainfall in these countries is not only larger than
that even in our Atlantic and Gulf states, but it falls more
exclusively during the summer season when its efficiency
in crop production may be highest. South China has a
rainfall of some 80 inches with little of it during the win-
ter, while in our southern states the rainfall is nearer 60
inches with less than one-half of it between June and Sep-
tember. Along a line drawn from Lake Superior through
eentral Texas the yearly precipitation is about 30 inches

Rainfall and Crops 7

but only 16 inches of this falls during the months May to
September; while in the Shantung province, China, with
an annual rainfall of little more than 24 inches, 17 of these
fall during the months designated and most of this in July
and August. When it is stated that under the best tillage
and with no loss of water through percolation, most of our
agricultural crops require 300 to 600 tons of water for each
ton of dry substance brought to maturity, it can be readily
understood that the right amount of available moisture,
coming at the proper time, must be one of the prime factors
of a high maintenance capacity for any soil, and hence that
in the Far East, with their intensive methods, it is possible
to make their soils yield large returns.

The selection of rice and of the millets as the great
staple food crops of these three nations, and the systems of
agriculture they have evolved to realize the most from
them, are to us remarkable and indicate a grasp of es-
sentials and principles which may well cause western na-
tions to pause and reflect.

Notwithstanding the large and favorable rainfall of
these countries, each of the nations have selected the one
crop which permits them to utilize not only practically
the entire amount of rain which falls upon their fields, but
in addition enormous volumes of the run-off from adjacent
uncultivable mountain country. Wherever paddy fields
are practicable there rice is grown. In the three main
islands of Japan 56 per cent of the cultivated fields, 11,000
square miles, is laid out for rice growing and is maintained
under water from transplanting to near harvest time, after
which the land is allowed to dry, to be devoted to dry land
crops during the balance of the year, where the season
permits.

To anyone who studies the agricultural methods of the
Far East in the field it is evident that these people, cen-
turies ago, came to appreciate the value of water in crop
production as no other nations have. They have adapted
conditions to crops and crops to conditions until with rice
they have a cereal which permits the most intense fertili-

g Introduction.

zation and at the same time the ensuring of maximum
yields against both drought and flood. With the practice
of western nations in all humid climates, no matter how
completely and highly we fertilize, in more years than not
yields are reduced by a deficiency or an excess of water.

It is difficult to convey, by word or map, an adequate
conception. of the magnitude of the systems of canalization
which contribute primarily to rice culture. A conserva-
tive estimate would place the miles of canals in China at
fully 200,000 and there are probably more miles of canal in
China, Korea and Japan than there are miles of railroad in
the United States. China alone has as many acres in rice
each year as the United States has in wheat and her an-
nual product is more than double and probably threefold
our annual wheat crop, and yet the whole of the rice area
produces at least one and sometimes two other crops each
year.

The selection of the quick-maturing, drought-resisting
millets as the great staple food crops to be grown wherever
water is not available for irrigation, and the almost uni-
versal planting in hills or drills, permitting intertillage,
thus adopting centuries ago the utilization of earth mulches
in conserving soil moisture, has enabled these people to se-
cure maximum returns in seasons of drought and where
the rainfall is small. The millets thrive in the hot sum-
mer climates; they survive when the available soil moisture
is reduced to a low limit, and they grow vigorously when
the heavy rains come. Thus we find in the Far East, with
more rainfall and a better distribution of it than occurs
in the United States, and with warmer, longer seasons, that
these people have with rare wisdom combined both irriga-
tion and dry farming methods to an extent and with an
intensity far beyond anything our people have ever
dreamed, in order that they might maintain their dense
populations.

Notwithstanding the fact that in each of these coun-
tries the soils are naturally more than ordinarily deep, in-
herently fertile and enduring, judicious and rational meth-

Fertilization. )

ods of fertilization are everywhere practiced; but not until
recent years, and only in Japan, have mineral commercial
fertilizers been used. For centuries, however, all cultiva-
ted lands, including adjacent hill and mountain sides,
the canals, streams and the sea have been made to con-
tribute what they could toward the fertilization of cul-
tivated fields and these contributions in the aggregate have
been large. In China, in Korea and in Japan all but the
inaccessible portions of their vast extent of mountain and
hill lands have long been taxed to their full capacity for
fuel, lumber and herbage for green manure and compost
material; and the ash of practically all of the fuel and of
all of the lumber used at home finds its way ultimately to
the fields as fertilizer.

In China enormous quantities of canal mud are applied
to the fields, sometimes at the rate of even 70 and more
tons per acre. So, too, where there are no canals, both
soil and subsoil are carried into the villages and there be-
tween the intervals when needed they are, at the expense
of great labor, composted with organic refuse and often
afterwards dried and pulverized before being carried back
and used on the fields as home-made fertilizers, Manure of
all kinds, human and animal, is religiously saved and ap-
plied to the fields in a manner which secures an efficiency
far above our own practices. Statistics obtained through
the Bureau of Agriculture, Japan, place the amount of
human waste in that country in 1908 at 23,950,295 tons,
or 1.75 tons per acre of her cultivated land. The Inter-
national Concession of the city of Shanghai, in 1908, sold
to a Chinese contractor the privilege of entering residences
and publie places early in the morning of each day in the
year and removing the night soil, receiving therefor more
than $31,000, gold, for 78,000 tons of waste. All of this
we not only throw away but expend much larger sums in
doing so.

Japan’s production of fertilizing material, regularly
prepared and applied to the land annually, amounts to
more than 4.5 tons per acre of cultivated field exclusive of

10 Introduction.

the commercial fertilizers purchased. Between Shanhai-
kwan and Mukden in Manchuria we passed, on June 18th,
thousands of tons of the dry highly nitrified compost soil
recently carried into the fields and laid down in piles where
it was waiting to be ‘‘fed to the crops.’’

It was not until 1888, and then after a prolonged war
of more than thirty years, generaled by the best scientists
of all Europe, that it was finally conceded as demonstrated
that leguminous plants acting as hosts for lower organisms
living on their roots are largely responsible for the mainte-
nance of soil nitrogen, drawing it directly from the air to
which it is returned through the processes of decay. But
centuries of practice had taught the Far Hast farmers that
the culture and use of these crops are essential to enduring
fertility, and so in each of the three countries the growing
of legumes in rotation with other crops very extensively
for the express purpose of fertilizing the soil is one of their
old, fixed practices.

Just before, or immediately after the rice crop is har-
vested, fields are often sowed to ‘“‘clover’’ (Astragalus
sinicus) which is allowed to grow until near the next trans-
planting time when it is either turned under directly, or
more often stacked along the canals and saturated while
doing so with soft mud dipped from the bottom of the
eanal. After fermenting twenty or thirty days it is ap-
plied to the field. And so it is literally true that these old
world farmers whom we regard as ignorant, perhaps be-
cause they do not ride sulky plows as we do, have long in-
cluded legumes in their crop rotation, regarding them as
indispensable.

Time is a function of every life process as it is of every
physical, chemical and mental reaction. The husbandman
is an industrial biologist and as such is compelled to shape
his operations so as to conform with the time requirements
of his crops. The oriental farmer is a time economizer he-
yond all others. He utilizes the first and last minute and
all that are between. The foreigner accuses the Chinaman
of being always long on time, never in a fret, never in a

Methods of Culture. 11

-hurry. This is quite true and made possible for the rea-
son that they are a people who definitely set their faces
toward the future and lead time by the forelock. They
have long realized that much time is required to transform
organic matter into forms available for plant food and al-
though they are the heaviest users in the world, the largest
portion of this organic matter is predigested with soil or
subsoil before it is applied to their fields, and at an enor-
mous cost of human time and labor, but it practically
lengthens their growing season and enables them to adopt
a system of multiple cropping which would not otherwise
be possible. By planting in hills and rows with intertillage
it is very common to see three crops growing upon the
same field at one time, but in different stages of maturity,
one nearly ready to harvest; one just coming up, and the
other at the stage when it is drawing most heavily upon the
soil. By such practice, with heavy fertilization, and by
supplemental irrigation when needful, the soil is made to
do full duty throughout the growing season.

Then, notwithstanding the enormous acreage of rice
planted each year in these countries, it js all set in hills and
every spear is transplanted. Doing this, they save in
many ways except in the matter of human labor, which is
the one thing they have in excess. By thoroughly prepar-
ing the seed bed, fertilizing highly and giving the most
careful attention, they are able to grow on one acre, during
30 to 50 days, enough plants to occupy ten acres and in
the mean time on the other nine acres crops are maturing,
being harvested and the fields being fitted to receive the
rice when it is ready for transplanting, and in effect this
interval of time is added to their growing season.

Silk culture is a great and, in some ways, one of the
most remarkable industries of the Orient. Remarkable for
its magnitude; for having had its birthplace apparently
in oldest China at least 2700 years B. C.; for having been
laid on the domestication of a wild insect of the woods;
and for having lived through more than 4000 years, ex-
panding until a million-dollar cargo of the product has

es Introduction.

been laid down on our western coast and rushed by special
fast express to the east for the Christmas trade.

A low estimate of China’s production of raw silk would
be 120,000,000 pounds annually, and this with the output
of Japan, Korea and a small area of southern Manchuria,
would probably exceed 150,000,000 pounds annually, rep-
resenting a total value of perhaps $700,000,000, quite equal-
ling in value the wheat crop of the United States, but pro-
duced on less than one-eighth the area of our wheat fields.

The cultivation of tea in China and Japan is another of
the great industries of these nations, taking rank with that
of sericulture if not above it in the important part it plays
in the welfare of the people. There is little reason to doubt
that this industry has its foundation in the need of some-
thing to render boiled water palatable for drinking pur-
poses. The drinking of boiled water is universally adopted
in these countries aS an individually available and thor-
oughly efficient safeguard against that class of deadly
disease germs which thus far it has been impossible to ex-
elude from the drinking water of any densely peopled
country.

Judged by the success of the most thorough sanitary
measures thus far instituted, and taking into considera-
tion the inherent difficulties which must increase enor-
mously with increasing populations, it appears inevitable
that modern methods must ultimately fail in sanitary effi-
ciency and that absolute safety can be secured only in
some manner having the equivalent effect of boiling drink-
ing water, long ago adopted by the Mongolian races.

In the year 1907 Japan had 124,482 acres of land in tea
plantations, producing 60,877,975 pounds of cured tea.
In China the volume annually produced is much larger
than that of Japan, 40,000,000 pounds going annually to
Tibet alone from the Szechwan province; and the direct
export to foreign countries was, in 1905, 176,027,255
pounds, and in 1906 it was 180,271,000, so that their an-
nual export must exceed 200,000,000 pounds with a total
annual output more than double this amount of cured tea.

Economy and Industry. 13

But above any other factor, and perhaps greater than
all of them combined in contributing to the high mainte-
nance efficiency attained in these countries must be placed
the standard of living to which the industrial classes have
been compelled to adjust themselves, combined with their
remarkable industry and with the most intense economy
they practice along every line of effort and of living.

Almost every foot of land is made to contribute material
for food, fuel or fabric. Everything which can be made
edible serves as food for man or domestic animals. What-
ever cannot be eaten or worn is used for fuel. The wastes
of the body, of fuel and of fabric worn beyond other use
are taken back to the field; before doing so they are housed
against waste from weather, compounded with intelligence
and forethought and patiently labored with through one,
three or even six months, to bring them into the most effi-
cient form to serve as manure for the soil or as feed for
the crop. It seems to be a golden rule with these indus-
trial classes, or if not golden, then an inviolable one, that
whenever an extra hour or day of labor can promise even
a little larger return then that shall be given, and neither
a rainy day nor the hottest sunshine shall be permitted to
cancel the obligation or defer its execution.

FIRST GLIMPSES OF JAPAN.

We left the United States from Seattle for Shanghai,
China, sailing by the northern route, at one P. M. Febru-
ary second, reaching Yokohama February 19th and Shang-
hai, March Ist. It was our aim throughout the journey
to keep in close contact with the field and crop problems
and to converse personally, through interpreters or other-
wise, with the farmers, gardeners and fruit growers them-
selves; and we have taken pains in many eases to visit the
same fields or the same region two, three or more times at
different intervals during the season in order to observe
different phases of the same cultural or fertilization meth-
ods as these changed or varied with the season.

Our first near view of Japan came in the early morning
of February 19th when passing some three miles off the
point where the Pacific passenger steamer Dakota was
beached and wrecked in broad daylight without loss of life
two years ago. The high rounded hills were clothed
neither in the dense dark forest green of Washington and
Vancouver, left sixteen days before, nor yet in the bril-
liant emerald such as Ireland’s hills in June fling in un-
paralleled greeting to passengers surfeited with the dull
grey of the rolling ocean. This lack of strong forest
growth and even of shrubs and heavy herbage on hills cov-
ered with deep soil, neither cultivated nor suffering from
serious erosion, yet surrounded by favorable climatic con-
ditions, was our first great surprise.

Landing in Japan. 15

To the southward around the point, after turning north-
ward into the deep bay, similar conditions prevailed, and
at ten o’clock we stood off Uraga where Commodore Perry
anchored on July 8th, 1853, bearing to the Shogun Presi-
dent Fillmore’s letter which opened the doors of Japan to
the commerce of the world and, it is to be hoped brought
to her people, with their habits of frugality and industry
so indelibly fixed by centuries of inheritance, better oppor-
tunities for development along those higher lines destined
to make life still more worth living.

As the Tosa Maru drew alongside the pier at Yokohama
it was raining hard and this had attired an army after the
manner of Robinson Crusoe, dressed as seen in Fig. 1,
ready to carry you and yours to the Customs house and
beyond for one, two, three or five cents. Strong was the
contrast when the journey was reversed and we descended
the gang plank at Seattle, where no one sought the oppor-
tunity of moving baggage.

Through the kindness of Captain Harrison of the Tosa
Maru in calling an interpreter by wireless to meet the
steamer, it was possible to utilize the entire interval of
stop in Yokchama to the best advantage in the fields and
gardens spread over the eighteen miles of plain extending
to Tokyo, traversed by both electric tram and railway
lines, each running many trains making frequent stops;
so that this wonderfully fertile and highly tilled district
could be readily and easily reached at almost any point.

We had left home in a memorable storm of snow, sleet
and rain which cut out of service telegraph and telephone
lines over a large part of the United States; we had sighted
the Aleutian Islands, seeing and feeling nothing on the
way which could suggest a warm soil and green fields, hence
our surprise was great to find the jinricksha men with bare
feet and legs naked to the thighs, and greater still when
we found, before we were outside the city limits, that the
electric tram was running between fields and gardens
green with wheat, barley, onions, carrots, cabbage and
other vegetables. We were rushing through the Orient

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Rainy-day Shoes. 17

with everything outside the car so strange and different
from home that the shock came like a bolt of Ts has-nuttie out
of a clear sky. i: }

In the car every man except myself and one other
was smoking tobacco and that other was inhaling camphor
through an ivory mouthpiece resembling a cigar holder
closed at the end. Several women, tiring of sitting foreign
style, slipped off—I cannot say out of—their shoes and
sat facing the windows, with toes crossed behind them on
the seat. The streets were muddy from the rain and every-
body Japanese was on rainy-day wooden shoes, the soles
carried three to four inches above the ground by two cross
blocks, in the manner seen in Fig. 2. A mother, with baby
on her back and a daughter of sixteen years came into the
car. Notwithstanding her high shoes the mother had dip-
ped cone toe into the mud. Seated, she slipped her foot
off. Without evident instructions the pretty black-eyed,
glossy-haired, red-lipped lass, with cheeks made rosy,
picked up the shoe, withdrew a piece of white tissue paper
from the great pocket in her sleeve, deftly cleaned the
otherwise spotless white cloth sock and then the shoe, threw
the paper on the floor, looked to see that her fingers were
not soiled, then set the shoe at her mother’s foot, which
found its place without effort or glance.

_ Everything here was strange and the scenes shifted with
the speed of the wildest dream. Now it was driving piles
for the foundation of a bridge. <A tripod of poles was
erected above the pile and from it hung a pulley. Over
the pulley passed a rope from the driving weight and from
its end at the pulley ten cords extended to the ground. In
a circle at the foot of the tripod stood ten agiie Japanese
women. They were the hoisting engine. They chanted in
perfect rhythm, hauled and stepped, dropped the weight
and hoisted again, making up for heavier hammer and
higher drop by more blows per minute. Wher we reached
Shanghai we saw the pile driver being worked from above.
Fourteen Chinese men stood upon a raised staging, each
with a separate cord passing direct from the hand to the
2

18 First Glimpses of Japan.

weight below. A concerted, half-musical chant, modulated
to relieve monotony, kept all hands together. What did
the operation of this machine cost? Thirteen cents, gold,

Fig. 2.—Girl on rainy-day wooden shoes, carrying and entertaining child
in the way most common in Japan.

per man per day, which covered fuel and lubricant, both
automatically served. Two additional men managed the
piles, two directed the hammer, eighteen manned the out-
fit. Two dollars and thirty-four cents per day covered
fuel, superintendence and repairs. There was almost no

Night Soil. 19

capital invested in machinery. Men were plenty and to
spare. Rice was the fuel, cooked without salt, boiled stiff,
reenforced with a bit of pork or fish, appetized with salted
cabbage or turnip and perhaps two or three of forty and
more other vegetable relishes. And are these men strong
and happy? They certainly were strong. They are
steadily increasing their millions, and as one stood and
watched them at their work their faces were often wreathed
in smiles and wore what seemed a look of satisfaction and
contentment.

Among the most common sights on our rides from Yoko-
hama to Tokyo, both within the city and along the roads
leading to the fields, starting early in the morning, were
the loads of night soil carried on the shoulders of men and
on the backs of animals, but most commonly on strong
earts drawn by men, bearing six to ten tightly covered
wooden containers holding forty, sixty or more pounds
each. Strange as it may seem, there are not today and ap-
parently never have been, even in the largest and oldest
cities of Japan, China or Korea, anything corresponding
to the hydraulic systems of sewage disposal used now by
western nations. Provision is made for the removal of
storm waters but when I asked my interpreter if it was
not the custom of the city during the winter months to
discharge its night soil into the sea, as a quicker and
cheaper mode of disposal, his reply came quick and sharp,
‘“No, that would be waste. We throw nothing away. It
is worth too much money.’’ In such public places as rail-
way stations provision is made for saving, not for wasting,
and even along the country roads screens invite the trav-
eler to stop, primarily for profit to the owner, more than
for personal convenience.

Between Yokohama and Tokyo, along the electric car line
and not far distant from the seashore, there were to be seen
in February very many long, fence-high screens extending
east and west, strongly inclined to the north, and built out
of rice straw,closely tied together and supported on bambco
poles carried upon posts of wood set in the ground. These

20 First Glimpses of Japan.

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Fig. 3.—Method of drying seaweed used for food. The small black squares
on the larger light ones are the seaweed. The skewers seen pin the squares
of matting against the long screens, six of which are shown in parallel
series.

Fig. 4.—Section of shallow sea bottom planted to brushwood on which the
edible seaweeds attach themselves and grow.

Drying Seaweed. 21

screens, set in parallel series of five to ten or more in num-
ber and several hundred feet long, were used for the pur-
pcse of drying varieties of delicate seaweed, these being
spread out in the manner shown in Fig. 3.

The seaweed is first spread upon separate ten by twelve
inch straw mats, forming a thin layer seven by eight inches.
These mats are held by means of wooden skewers forced
through the body of the screen, exposing the seaweed to
the direct sunshine. After becoming dry the rectangles of
seaweed are piled in bundles an inch thick, cut once in
two, forming packages four by seven inches, which are
neatly tied and thus exposed for sale as soup stock and
for other purposes.

To obtain this seaweed from the ocean small shrubs and
the limbs of trees are set up in the bottom of shallow water,
as seen in Hig. 4. To these limbs the seaweeds become at-
tached, grow to maturity and are then gathered by hand.
By this method of culture large amounts of important
food stuff are grown for the support of the people on areas
otherwise wholly unproductive.

Another rural feature, best shown by photograph taken
in February, is the method of training pear orchards in
Japan, with their limbs tied down upon horizontal over-
head trellises at a hight under which a man ean readily
walk erect and easily reach the fruit with the hand while
standing upon the ground. Pear orchards thus form ar-
bors of greater or less size, the trees being set in quincunx
order about twelve feet apart in and between the rows.
Bamboo poles are used overhead and these carried on
posts of the same material 1.5 to 2.5 inches in diameter, to
which they are tied. Such a pear orchard is shown in
Fig. 5.

The limbs of the pear trees are trained strictly in one
plane, tying them down and pruning out those not de-
sired. Asa result the ground beneath js completely shaded
and every pear is within reach, which is a great con-
venience when it becomes desirable to protect the fruit

22 First Glimpses of Japan.

Fig. 5.—Looking down upon an extensive pear orchard whose limbs are
trained horizontally, forming an arbor completely shading the ground
when in leaf, and placing all of the fruit within reach of the hand from
beneath.

Fig. 6.—Pear trees at Akashi Experiment Station, Japan. Pears protected
by paper bags. Special form of pruning advised by Prof. Ono, standing
on the left, with Prof. Tokito. The trees branch below rather than at the
level of the trellis.

Pear Orchards. 23

from insects, by tying paper bags over every pear as seen
in Figs. 6 and 7. The orchard ground is kept free from
weeds and not infrequently is covered with a layer of
rice or other straw, extensively used in Japan as a ground
cover with various crops and when so used is carefully
laid in handfuls from bundles, the straws being kept par-
allel as when harvested.

Fig. 7.—Low branching pear orchard with pears protected by paper bags, at
Akashi Experiment Station, Japan.

To one from a country of 160-acre farms, with roads
four rods wide; of cities with broad streets and residences
with green lawns and ample back yards; and where the
cemeteries are large and beautiful parks, the first days of
travel in these old countries force the over-crowding upon
the attention as nothing else can. One feels that the cities
are greatly over-crowded with houses and shops, and these
with people and wares; that the country is over-crowded
with fields and the fields with crops; and that in Japan
the over-crowding is greatest of all in the cemeteries,

til.

First Glimpses of Jap:

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gravestones almost touching and markers for families liter-
ally in bundles at a grave, while round about there may
be no free country whatever, dwellings, gardens or rice
paddies contesting the tiny allotted areas too closely to
leave even foot-paths between.

Unless recently modified through foreign influence the
streets of villages and cities are narrow, as seen in Fig. 8,
where however the street is unusually broad. This is a
village in the Hakone district on a beautiful lake of the
Same name, where stands an Imperial summer palace, seen
near the center cf the view on a hill across the lake. The
roofs of the houses here are typical ot the neat, careful
thatching with rice straw, very generally adopted in place
of tile for the country villages throughout much of Japan.
The shops and stores, open full width directly upon the
street, are filled to overflowing, as seen in Fig. 9 and in
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First Glimpses of Japan.

26

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Crowding of Rural Sections. 27

In the canalized regions of China the country villages
erowd both banks of a canal, as is the case in Fig. 10.
Here, too, often is a single street and it very narrow, very
crowded and very. busy. Stone steps lead from the houses
down into the water where clothing, vegetables, rice and
what not are conveniently washed. In this particular
village two rows of houses stand on one side of the canal
separated by a very narrow street, and a single row on the
other. Between the bridge where the camera was exposed
and one barely discernible in the background, crossing the
canal a third of a mile distant, we counted upon one side,
walking along the narrow street, eighty houses each with
its family, usually of three generations and often of four.
Thus in the narrow strip, 154 feet broad, including 16 feet
of street and 30 feet of canal, with its three lines of houses,
lived no less than 240 families and more than 1200 and
probably nearer 2000 people.

When we turn to the crowding of fields in the country
nothing except seeing can tell so forcibly the fact as such
landscapes as those of Figs. 11, 12 and 135, one in Japan,
one in Korea and one in China, not far from Nanking, look-
ing from the hills across the fields to the broad Yangtse
kiang, barely discernible as a band of light along the
horizon.

The average area of the rice field in Japan is less than
five square rods and that of her upland fields only about
twenty. In the case of the rice fields the small size is
necessitated partly by the requirement of holding water on
the sloping sides of the valley, as seen in Fig. 11. These
small areas do not represent the amount of land worked
by one family, the average for Japan being more nearly
2.5 acres. But the lands worked by one family are seldom
contiguous, they may even be widely scattered and very
often rented.

The people generally live in villages, going often consid-
erable distances to their work. Recognizing the great disad-
vantage of scattered holdings broken into such small areas,
the Japanese Government has passed laws for the adjust-

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