110 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



forests or on the mountains. When the mud is very soft 

 and deep, the grass is sufficiently covered by merely tram- 

 pling it down with the feet. The after-cultivation consists 

 in pulling up all weeds and grasses by hand, in pouring on 

 liquid manure, or applying some solid fertilizer, and in 

 properly regulating the supply of water. Rice yields from 

 twenty to sixty bushels per acre, and is worth, when cleaned 

 thoroughly, about one dollar per bushel. The total annual 

 product of the country is a hundred , and fifty millions of 

 bushels. 



The second most important agricultural industry of Japan 

 is the production of tea, which is gathered either from wild 

 or cultivated shrubs. The plantations are set in rows about 

 six feet apart, and last for many 3'ears, according to soil, 

 climate, and treatment. Tea may be grown upon almost 

 any soil ; but the best comes from the vicinity of Uji in the 

 southern part of Hondo. The soil of this region is a light- 

 colored, gravelly loam, which 3'ields but small crops of 

 cereals. In the most valuable fields the shrubs are from a 

 hundred to a hundred and fifty years old, and the stems very 

 numerous, the largest being from one inch to three, inches in 

 diameter. The clumps or rows are about three feet thick 

 and four feet high, and are carefully pruned every season. 

 The ground is kept quite clean, and enriched with liquid 

 manure. During the spring and early summer the fields are 

 entirely covered over with mats of rice-straw spread upon 

 bamboo-poles at a height of six feet above the earth. This 

 gives the country a very extraordinary appearance by no 

 means attractive. The object in thus shading the shrubs is 

 to partially blanch the foliage, and check the development of 

 the chlorophyl so as to render the leaves more tender and 

 delicate in flavor. The crop is thus diminished in quantity, 

 but enhanced in quality and price. About the middle of 

 May, when the young shoots are three or four inches long, 

 the women and children begin the first picking, which fur- 

 nishes the best tea. The picker seizes the shoot just below 

 the middle, and with a quick jerk strips off two or three 

 leaves and the soft tip, and drops them into a basket. The 

 fresh leaves are carried to the curing-house, where they are 

 steamed in a close vessel for an hour. They are next put 

 into paper trays over a small charcoal-fire, and rapidly dried. 



