1904.] ADDRESS. 37 



flooded niucli of the fiiiic. When flic plaiifs arc six or c'glit 

 inches liigli they are traiisi)lanted into hills abouf a foot apart; 

 and tliere carefully tended througli all the period of their growth. 

 It is a common sight to see men and women, up to their knees 

 in muddy water, setting the plants or pushing the hand culti- 

 vator, by which they are later hilled more perfectly. The 

 method of irrigation is ()ft(>n most i)rimitive. If the fields are 

 by a stream, the water is lifted into th(> sluice-ways by a great 

 wheel, whose wide surface is laden with little buckets, which 

 as the wheel revolves empty their contents into a leading-pipe. 

 The whole is turned by human tread or, if the current is strong, 

 by the force of the stream. Where there is no running water, 

 many wells are sunk and from them by hand the water is drawn. 

 About Kyoto the fields are watered from a branch of the great 

 canal which for commercial purposes connects Lake Biwa with 

 the city. At the harvest, four or five hills of rice are bound 

 together and hung upon bamboo rods to dry. The grain is 

 removed by hatchelling and winnowed by the breeze. 



From this picture of simple conditions, however, do not 

 hastily judge that we have nothing to learn from the agriculture 

 of Japan. A willingness to learn is the hope of the agricultu- 

 rist. In 1899 the United States Department of Agriculture 

 introduced Kyushu rice with the purpose of developing the 

 rice-growing industry in Louisiana and Texas. It would be 

 quite apart from my intention to review the results. They 

 more than met the most sanguine expectations. Believing that 

 further improvement might be effected. Dr. S. A. Knapp was 

 later commissioned to visit Asia and study the methods of 

 rice-culture. His report is issued by the Department's Bureau 

 of Plant Industry, Bulletin No. 35. 



We call Japan a lantl of flowers. It is a land of trees also. 

 Almost one-fourth of its plant growths are woody; and for 

 its area Japan is unsurpassed in the number of forest trees. 

 Yet many of our most familiar friends are there unknown; 

 and those of you who have become at all interested in botanical 

 study have observed that to many common names is added 

 the term Japonica, to signify that the tree or shrub as there 



