THE IMPERIAL AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 

 OF SAPPORO. 



THE War of Restoration over, the Japanese Gov- 

 ernment turned its attention to more peaceful pur- 

 suits. It began to divert the overflowing energies 

 of the warrior class and the superabundant strength 

 of the oppressed peasantry into new channels of 

 industrial warfare and conquest. A field well suited 

 for enterprises of this kind was not wanting. For 

 some years preceding the Restoration (1868) foreign 

 relations had been forced upon Japan ; and the 

 contact with Russia in diplomacy brought vividly 

 to mind the fact that the northern extremity of 

 our Empire touched one end of the Czar's vast 

 dominion. The northern islands of Japan, vaguely 

 called Yezo, were for centuries a terra incognita 

 among the peopl : all that was told about, and 

 unfortunately most readily accepted by them was 

 that the region was the abode of a barbarian folk 

 known as the Ainu, and that it was a dreary waste 

 of snow and ice, altogether unfit for inhabitation 

 by a race of higher culture. 



To Yezo, then, at once the northern frontier of 

 the Empire and a land endowed with magnificent 

 natural resources as yet untouched by human hand, 



48254 



