108 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



ley, or millet ; or of colza or rape-seed for oil ; or of radish, 

 turni23, or cabbage, or some other vegetable. The same land, 

 when well irrigated, 3"ields in summer an abundant return of 

 rice, the most important food-plant of the country. Upon 

 fertile fields not well supplied with water, the summer crops 

 may be beans or pease, yams, melons, sweet-potatoes, squashes, 

 maize, sor^'ium, cotton, or almost any other desirable plant. 

 Of perennial crops, the most valuable are sugar-cane, tea, 

 Chinese mulberry, and paper mulberry. In this favored land 

 seed-time and harvest occur together almost every month in 

 the year, and the farmer can never complete his work. 



Almost all the operations of agriculture are performed by 

 band, and the tools employed are simple and cheap. Wheat 

 is sowed by hand in drills, is hoed with a mattock, is cut 

 with a grass-hook, threshed on the ground with a flail, win- 

 nowed with large fans, or tossed in a basket, put up in straw 

 bags, and usually ground by hand. The total value of all 

 the tools and appliances used in raising a crop of wheat, and 

 preparing it for market, is less than ten dollars, and little else 

 is required for any or all other crops. As there are very 

 few domestic animals, there is no need of fences, and so this 

 enormous expense is spared. The farm-buildings are also 

 very small and cheap, as there is no occasion for barns, and 

 tlie farmers are not proud. Small, one-storied, unpainted 

 houses, with paper windows, and a hole in the roof for venti- 

 lation, satisfy the desires of the most ambitious among them. 

 They prefer to dwell in villages, but are very fond of orna- 

 mental hedges, evergreen shrubs, shade and fruit trees, and 

 beautiful flf" Ters, around their habitations. These inexpen- 

 sive but showy surroundings greatly relieve the cheapness 

 of their dress, and the scantiness of their furniture, and give 

 a general impression of cheerfulness. Time would fail us 

 even to enumerate all the interesting forms of vegetation 

 with which this charming country is adorned. But he who 

 has seen the bright green stems and feathery foliage of a 

 bamboo-grove rising to the height of from fifty to a hundred 

 feet, and has learned the manifold uses of this arborescent 

 grass, and its wondrous habit of growth, will always rejoice 

 at the recollection of it. The Japanese are very fond of 

 fine scenerj", and often undertake excursions to such locali- 

 ties as afford good views of it. They are also accustomed to 



