USE OF LIQUID FERTILIZERS. 107 



means of large covered buckets suspended to a neck-3'oke. 

 These buckets are furnished with a suitable orifice in the 

 bottom, tlirough which the fluid is allowed to eScape in a 

 small stream upon the drills or rows, in which all crops are 

 planted except rice. Upon this, liquid manure is applied by 

 mixing it with the irrigating water which covers the fields to 

 the depth of a few inches. The cost of thus annually enrich- 

 ing land, so as to get a good crop, and maintain its fertility 

 without deterioration, is about twelve dollars per acre. This 

 application of plant-food in solution renders it immediately 

 available to the roots without regard to the rainfall, and, in 

 connection with irrigation, insures a remunerative crop. A 

 real famine is a most uncommon calamity in Japan. 



"Weeds are almost unknown on the arable lands of Japan, 

 and there are large tracts where not a single wild plant can 

 be found. Every individual stalk of valuable vegetation 

 receives attention from the farmer, and every useless plant 

 is eradicated before it blossoms. The seeds which in this 

 country are so commonly scattered over our fields in the 

 manure from our pig-pens and barnyards are not thus dis- 

 seminated in Dai Nippon. 



The implements of tillage are the spade and the mattock, 

 and they are used with remarkable fidelity and skill. The 

 soil is constantly stirred to a considerable depth, and for 

 many crops is raised into narrow ridges from six inches to 

 three feet in width, which are often a foot high and about 

 the same distance apart. Thus the whole top-soil is placed 

 at the disposal of the roots, which readilj' penetrate it, and it 

 is much better aerated than when spread over the entire sur- 

 face. The subsoil is frequently heavy and wet, and from 

 this the moisture rises to the roots in the mellow ridges, and 

 vegetation goes on with great uniformity and vigor. After 

 the harvest of the winter crops, the ridges are all levelled, and 

 the ground prepared for the flat cultivation of the rice-field, 

 which is then flooded with water during a portion of the 

 summer. 



The market-gardeners around Paris are said to have habit- 

 ually, at least two crops growing on their land at the same 

 time, and not infrequently to harvest eight crops of vegeta- 

 bles of various sorts in one year. The best farm-lands of 

 Japan produce a winter crop of some cereal, as wheat, bar- 



