508 



JAPAN. 



social condition of the middle classes, and the 

 dress and style of hair of the women con- 

 formed to foreign fashion, thus necessitating 

 shoes, bonnets, and underclothing. Luxurious 

 habits are becoming common. Women appear 

 more in public and mingle in social life ; eti- 

 quette is modified. Out-of-door sports and 

 gymnastics hawking, gunning, fishing, and 

 other active amusements, once unknown ex- 

 cept to professionals or the leisured classes 

 are now increasingly indulged in by merchants 

 and mechanics. Before the opening of the 

 country to foreign intercourse, all the alcoholic 

 drinks known, whether made from rice, bar- 

 ley, fruit, or potatoes, numbered thirty-three. 

 Of foreign and native containing alcohol, one 

 hundred and thirty -three are now on sale. 



Soil, Climate, and Crops. Most of the soil of 

 Japan is a black vegetable mold from two to 

 ten feet in depth, superimposed upon a deep 

 clay subsoil. Its excess of humic acid renders 

 its fertile elements more or less insoluble, but 

 with lime or potash every product of the lati- 

 tude grows luxuriantly. The chief fertilizer is 

 human ordure, and hence the soil in the vicini- 

 ty of large cities is of the best working quality. 

 In addition to the plentiful supply of water by 

 the system of canals and rivers, the average 

 number of rainy days in one year noted at one 

 station was 97'52, and the rainfall 71*17 inches, 

 the precipitation varying in years from 42 to 

 122 inches. The land-tenure until 1868 was 

 purely feudal, the military favorites of the sho- 

 gun leasing it at their pleasure to the farmers, 

 who paid their rent in advance. Without a 

 cold season, enforcing rest, the farmer in the 

 mild climate raised the hardier crops in winter. 

 Even then, with constant toil, the husbandman 

 barely secured a living. Since the abolition of 

 feudalism in 1868," the land, which belonged in 

 theory to the Emperor, has been sold, and IB 

 held in fee simple. About three tenths of all 

 tilled lan'd is now in the hands of smaller pro- 

 prietors, the remainder being held in larger 

 divisions. In old times the farmer jeoparded 

 his life if he made complaint to obtain redress. 

 Now he can educate his children, and, if pay- 

 ing $10 in land-tax, is an elector in the local 

 deliberative assembly, which regulates taxes. 

 The condition of the agricultural classes has 

 been amazingly improved by the recent revo- 

 lutions; but labor is still almost entirely of the 

 hand and back. In 1879 there were but 900,- 

 274 horses and 814,324 cattle in Japan The 

 laborer still carries burdens on his back, and 

 much of his earnings go for transportation. 



Eice, which is grown in all the sixty prov- 

 inces, is the chief crop, rice-land being worth 

 five times the value of ordinary tilled land, or 

 about $200 an acre. In feudal days all rice was 

 stored and none exported. It is now sold and 

 exported under limitations. The land-tax is 

 the great source of revenue. In 1875 12,000,- 

 000 acres were under cultivation. The value 

 of the rice-fields in the empire in 1884 was 

 $1,219,506,637, averaging $463.51 per chd 



(108,000 square feet), or about $40 an acre. 

 The crop of 1883 produced 30,474,834 Icolcu 

 (168,000,000 bushels), valued at $4,397 a 

 Icolcu, making $133,997,845 in all. Of 6,500,- 

 000 acres planted with rice in 1878, the crop 

 was 180,000,000 bushels, the average yield be- 

 ing 30 bushels to an acre, and the total value 

 being $202,521,750. The government-tax on 

 low irrigable rice-land is $5 an acre. The 

 land-tax is 2 per cent., and that for local pur- 

 poses per cent, making 3 per cent, in all. 

 Four or five acres of rice-land and one or two 

 acres of bluff or timber-land form a respect- 

 able holding. The homes of the rice, silk, and 

 tea farmers are the best of all agricultural la- 

 borers'. In 1878, 38,000,000 bushels of wheat, 

 worth $19,000,000; 60,000,000 bushels of barley, 

 worth $36,000,000; beans, vegetables, fruits, 

 etc., worth $35,074,781 ; 90,000,000 pounds of 

 tobacco, worth $7,500,000 ; 60,000,000 pounds 

 of tea, and in 1875 $11,640,977 worth of silk, 

 were grown. In 1884, $10,000,000 worth of 

 fish were caught. Formerly the whole gov- 

 ernmental revenue was derived from the land- 

 tax. As compared with European countries, 

 it will be seen that even with the approach to 

 equalization of taxes by the adoption of West- 

 ern methods, and notably of the American sys- 

 tem of internal revenue, the Japanese farmer 

 still bears the heaviest burden. The percent- 

 age that the land-tax furnishes to the general 

 revenue in Great Britain is 8 -3, in France 1*6, 

 in Italy 8*3, in Austria 7'1, in Japan 56-4. The 

 tax paid by the Japanese farmers amounts to 

 $75,982,969. 



Ednciition. The plans made in 1872, for a na- 

 tional system of public education that should 

 include the founding and equipment of nearly 

 55,000 public schools, are steadily approaching 

 realization. One powerful influence to secure 

 this is the presence in the country of large 

 numbers of native young men who have been 

 educated in Europe and America. The first 

 students to the United States, who arrived in 

 New York in 1866, for the purpose, as they 

 said, of learning "how to make big guns, so 

 that European nations should not conquer their 

 country," were Is6 and Numagawa. They 

 were followed by others, who had jeoparded 

 their lives in leaving Japan. These were edu- 

 cated mostly at New Brunswick, N. J. Dur- 

 ing the civil war of 1868-70 in their own 

 country, they were supported by American 

 gentlemen who made advances until the Mi- 

 kado's government, restored to power, paid 

 the loans. In a document signed by the im- 

 perial envoys of 1872, it was declared that 

 this act of kindness had done more to dispose 

 the Japanese toward the acceptance of foreign 

 civilization than any other cause or series of 

 causes. From 1865 to 1884, 594 young men 

 studied abroad at government expense, 

 these, nine graduated from American colleges, 

 and thirty-five are now in the public service 

 of Japan. Nearly an equal number studied 

 abroad at private expense, some of whom 



