RYUKYU PEOPLE — NEWMAN AND ENG 387 



they were usually small and averaged half an acre. With the demand 

 twice the supply in the late 1930's, rice imports from Japan were high. 

 During World War II, these imports were reduced. 



Ii3aikyu methods of wet-rice culture were virtually the same as those 

 of other Far Eastern countries. Irrigation involved no reservoirs or 

 canals, but only called for diverting stream water into narrow chan- 

 nels to the terraced paddies. The water then filtered from higher to 

 lower paddy. Manure, night soil, cover crops, compost, and some 

 commercial fertilizers were used on rice and other fields. The use of 

 all available natural fertilizers, so shocking to people of the Western 

 world, was characteristic of the extreme economy of Ryukyu life. 

 The hoeing or plowing, harrowing and leveling, transplanting of 

 seedlings, weeding, and harvesting were almost wholly done by hand. 



Other grains were grown, but did not bulk as large as food crops. 

 These were wheat, millet, and barley. Although broadcast sowing 

 was known, it was more usual to plant seed in rows of holes with a 

 simple digging stick. Some root crops other than the sweetpotato 

 were cultivated in minor quantities. Truck gardening and raising of 

 hay and other forage crops were little practiced. On steep slopes and 

 otherwise infertile lands, cycads {Cycas revoluta) were grown from 

 seedlings. The pith of these trees was washed, dried, and made into 

 sago flour, which was used by the very poor, or in times of famine. 

 Under the Eyukyu monarchy, cycad cultivation was sufficiently im- 

 portant to have an official in charge of it. 



Sugarcane was grown as a cash crop on about one-quarter of the 

 cultivated land in the Kyukyus. It was preferably planted in the clay 

 soils of the coastal plains, but was especially susceptible to typhoon 

 damage there. Most plots were small, rarely over an acre in size. 

 Although there were a few large sugar "centrals" most of the cane was 

 crushed in small, literally one-horse mills of original Chinese design. 

 The cane juice was then boiled, put in clay trays for drying, and ex- 

 ported in unrefined state. 



Animal husbandry and fishing were overshadowed by agriculture. 

 Most farm households had a hog or two and several goats. Fewer 

 owned horses and cattle. Stock farms were almost nonexistent in the 

 Ryukyus, so most of the slaughterhouse meat came from the small 

 farms. Home-grown pork was more frequently eaten than other meat. 

 It was a large enough item in the diet to elicit the contemptuous nick- 

 name "Pork-eater" from the Japanese. At the onset of the war, meat 

 consumption was cut until it reached the average table only about four 

 times a year. 



Most Ryulcyu fishermen operated from small offshore craft. (See 

 pi. 3, center.) Their commercial catch was small compared to the few 

 deep-sea fishermen who seined, drag-netted, and hooked bonito from 

 large boats. More commercial fishing was done in the North Ryukyus 



