JAPANESE WHEAT CULTURE. 31 



engaged in agricultural pursuits, not including women or young 

 people under twenty-one years of age. In the year 1732 the 

 imperial taxes were removed from the tenants of farms and 

 placed upon the larger proprietors; and for the further encour 

 agement of a class of such vital importance to the empire, it 

 was decreed that the governor of every city or village of a cer 

 tain number of inhabitants should send to the court the name 

 of the most successful farmer, distinguished for good conduct 

 and the good will of his neighbors, for frugality, and freedom 

 from excesses. 



This wise and diligent agriculturist was thereupon raised to 

 the dignity of a mandarin of the eighth order by letters patent. 

 He might visit the governor, sit down in his presence and drink 

 tea with him. Respected for the remainder of his days, he 

 should receive the honorable funeral of a mandarin on his de 

 cease; and while his name was written on the tablets of his an 

 cestors, it would be cherished by the government as of one who 

 had rendered the highest service to his country. 



Of all countries, Japan is the most remarkable for the de 

 velopment of her agricultural resources. There the agri 

 cultural interest has been protected by the most enlightened 

 conduct toward the producing classes, who stand next in rank 

 to the defenders of the State. A very interesting paper on this 

 subject, contributed by Hon. Horace Capron to the report of 

 the Department of Agriculture for 1873, shows that even in 

 wheat culture we have much to learn from the large experience 

 of this thrifty and intelligent people. The well-known practice 

 of the Japanese and Chinese in dwarfing plants, throwing thsir 

 strength into fruit or flowers, at the expense of wood or leaves, 

 is applied to wheat, thus shortening and thickening the straw, 

 increasing the size of the heads, and rendering it less liable to 

 lodge. 



Japan is far too tempting a subject to be more than touched 

 upon here. If &quot;China is old, and immovably conservative,&quot; 

 Japan, not younger in years, but in the spirit which welcomes 

 new truths in science and new applications of these to the arts 

 of life, is vigorous with an eternal youth. 



In Japan we have a stable civilization based upon absolutism, 

 imperiled by the existence of caste, isolated for unknown cen 

 turies from intercourse with other countries, yet maintaining 



