448 FROM PROUD PRESTON TO POOR JAPAN. [Nov. 



tlie spade — a long clumsy arrangement, that can be converted into 

 a mattock (a kind of pick) in a few moments. In digging, this 

 spade is found most unwieldy, and it seems extraordinary that 

 the European kinds have not long since replaced it. It serves the 

 purposes of spade, shovel, hoe, and cultivator. The dark-coloured 

 portions are made of wrought-iron, edged with steel, these parts 

 being fastened to tlie wooden stock and handle by wooden pegs. It 

 costs about 4s. From the spades we come to the ploughs, and 

 these are of two kinds — for cattle or liorses, and for hand labour. 

 Tliese are not so frequently employed as the mattock, owing to the 

 small areas of tlie fields to be cultivated. They are- all constructed 

 of hardwood, except the dark shaded parts, which are of wrought 

 iron, with tempered edges. The non-use of ploughs cannot be in 

 consequence of tlie expense, seeing that they can be purchased at 

 any price ranging from 3 s. 4d. to 8 s. each. A plough can be pur- 

 chased at a lower price than a really good spade. Fig. 2 represents 

 a hand plough, and in Fig. 4 this is seen at work. In addition to 

 tlie handle, a rope is tied round the peg which is attached to the 

 plough shoe, and this goes round the body of the labourer. Figs. 4 

 and 5 are of a horse plough, and of the same at work. The rollers 

 and pulverizers do not call for much remark. They are clumsy in 

 appearance, and that is all. Xeitlier do the appliances for irriga- 

 tion, and applying insecticides. The latter is an ordinary syringe, 

 and for the former, a water wheel worked by treading is shown. 

 For harvesting the grain shears are sometimes used, the other 

 implement being a sickle — the blade here being straight. When the 

 grain is gathered in — in every case by hand — it is either threshed out 

 with a rude flail, or with the " hatchell " (Fig. G). The teeth of the 

 latter are made of iron or hardwood. About three persons work at 

 each of these latter, dragging the heads of the corn through the 

 comb, and by this means the grain is got out. It is then winnowed 

 by being run out from a basket to the floor, a bamboo mat being 

 worked as a fan to blow away the chaff. These are a few 

 of the more interesting of the machines in use in Japan. 

 The almost exclusive use of hand labour in farming operations in 

 Japan seems to preclude the introduction of improved machinery, 

 when taken in conjunction with the comparatively nominal cost of 

 the rude native implements that fully meet the farmer's require- 

 ments. It seems that American machinery is only used on the 

 Government experimental farms, while an American merchant has 

 for no less than fifteen years been trying to sell more modern 

 machinery without the slightest success. These machines and tools 

 are too expensive, and are not adapted to either the tastes of the 

 people or to the gardening operations in Liliputian fields, which is 



