JAP.\NESE HUSBANDRY. 393 



I need not mention that the manure thus left by benevolent 

 travellers is treated exactly in the same way as the family 

 manure. 



But the excrements of the peasant contain also some other 

 matter, which has not been derived from the soil of his fields, 

 and which may be said to represent an additional importation 

 of manure. The river, brooks, and canals, and the numerous 

 little bays, abound in fish, which the religion of the Japanese 

 permits him to eat, a permission of which he most largely 

 avails himself. Fishes, crabs, lobsters, and snails are eaten in 

 quantities, and these ultimately afford a most valuable item of 

 contribution to the privy, and consequently to the fertilising 

 field-manure. 



The Japanese farmer prepares also coiwpost. As he keeps no 

 cattle to turn his straw, vtc. into manure, he is forced to incor- 

 porate this part of his produce with the soil without ' animali- 

 sation.' The method pursued to effect this object consists 

 simply in the concentration of the materials. Chaff, chopped 

 straw, horse-dung excrement gathered in the highways, tops 

 and leaves of turnips, peelings of yams and sweet potatoes, and 

 all the offal of the farm, are carefully mixed with a little 

 mould, shovelled up in small pyramidal heaps, moistened, and 

 covered with a straw thatch. I often saw also in this compost 

 heaps of shells of mussels and snails, with which most of the 

 rivulets and brooks abound, and which, in all parts close to the 

 seashore, may be obtained in any quantities. The compost 

 heaps are occasionally moistened and turned with the shovel, 

 and thus the process of decomposition proceeds rapidly, under 

 the powerful action of the sun. I have also often seen the 

 shorter process of reduction by fire resorted to when there was 

 plenty of straw, or where the maniu-e was required for use 

 before it could be got ready by the fermentation process. 



The half-charred mass was, in such cases, in so far as my own 

 observation enabled me to judge, strewed directly on the seed 

 sown in the ground. 



I think the treatment of this compost is another proof 

 that the Japanese farmer does not care for the azotised matters, 

 and that he strives to destroy all organic substances in his 

 manure before making use of it. Tlte great object of the 



