398 APPENDIX G. 



produce, I would point to the fact that the Japanese empire, 

 which covers an area similar to Gfreat Britain and Ireland, and 

 of which one-half at the most, from the hilly nature of the 

 country, can be looked upon as fit for tillage, not only contains 

 a larger number of inhabitants than Grreat Britain and Ireland, 

 but maintains them without any supply of food from other parts. 

 Whilst Great Britain is compelled to import corn from other 

 countries, to the extent of many millions per annum, Japan 

 since the opening of its ports actually exports no inconsiderable 

 quantities of food. 



SECTION II. 



TILLAGE OF THE SOIL. 



Deep cultivation of the soil has become a kind of proverb 

 with our modern writers on agriculture ; and the principle of 

 the system is, at least, fully admitted on all hands, the only 

 objection occasionally raised against it being that it requires a 

 large supply of manure. But the most enthusiastic admirer of 

 the system in Europe can hardly conceive how universally and 

 in what high perfection it is carried on in Japan. 



The Japanese husbandman has come to treat his field as a 

 plastic material, to be turned to account in any way or form he 

 pleases, just as a tailor may cut out of a piece of cloth cloaks, 

 coats, trowsers, or vests, and occasionally makes the one out 

 of the other. To-day we find a plot of ground covered with 

 a wheat-crop ; in eight days the wheat is reaped, and one 

 half of the field is transformed into a swamp thoroughly satu- 

 rated with water, in which the farmer, sinking up to his knees, 

 is busy planting rice, whilst the other half is a broad and dry 

 plot, raised 2 or 2^ feet above the rice swamp, and ready to 

 receive cotton, or sweet potatoes, or buckwheat. It often 

 happens also that a square plot in the centre is turned into a 

 dry bed, surrounded by a broad rice swamp ; and as the water 

 must cover the surface of the latter only slightly, the levelling 

 must have been effected with great care, and with the use of 

 instruments. 



The whole of this work has been done by the farmer and his 

 small family in a very short time. That it could be accom- 



