18 EECENT FOREIGN EXPLORATIONS. 



passing the grain through a pair of burrs made of cement and bamboo 

 and worked by hand. Winnowing is done b}^ the open-air process, or 

 by a simple fanning mill. (PI. II, tigs. 1, 2.) 



After winnowing the milled product is placed in sacks deftly made 

 of rice straw, each sack holding about 133i pounds. In these the rice 

 is transported to market and the sacks are afterwards sold for paper 

 material. 



MANURE. 



The extent to which night soil is used for fertilizing is scarcely 

 conceivable. Whether in city or country, it is practically all saved in 

 earthen receptacles and removed once or twice daily, according to the 

 weather. The night soil is carried in wooden buckets, balanced on a 

 pole across the shoulder. In cities the collectors sell to fertilizer com- 

 panies what a man can carry (about 8 gallons) for 10 cents in silver. 

 The companies transport it on flatboats to the rural districts, where it 

 is applied in liquid form. In one corner of almost every garden and 

 field may be found a cistern for storing liquid manure. 



FARM WAGES. 



Common laborers on the farm in Japan receive on an average 6 

 cents (gold) per day for women and 10 cents for men, with board, 

 except in harvest time, when they are paid about double these amounts. 

 Harvesting is expensive, considering the price of labor. On one occa- 

 sion while in Japan a field was passed where two men were cutting 

 rice. They stated they were paid 2 yen (|1 gold) for cutting, bind- 

 ing, and hanging on poles the rice in a small field by the roadside. 

 On measuring it there was found to be two-elevenths of an acre, the 

 cost being at the rate of |5.50 (gold) per acre. Still, it is difficult to 

 see how there could be any change in the methods of managing the 

 riceindustry in Japan. The present system of transplanting insures 

 the best results and allows time to take off the winter crop. By the 

 hand process the straw, which is quite valuable, is preserved, the 

 grain is cut at the right time, even where there is a variation of matu- 

 rity in the same field, and there is no loss from the cracking of kernels 

 by the hatchel. 



COST OF RAISING RICE. 



A farmer near Tokyo furnished the following data in regard to the 

 profits of rice farming, the estimate being for 1 acre of land: 



Case 1. — Where the owner of the land hires the work done: 



Cost of seed, 16 sho, or nearly 36 pound.s $0. 62 



Cost of manure 10. 00 



Cost of labor, 120 days' work 18-00 



Cost of repairing tools 1-20 



Taxes, Government and local 8. 00 



Profits 16- IQ 



Total - 54.00 



