88 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1892. 



especially fond of it and will eat it in summer in preference to 

 English grasses. Prudent managers, therefore, during the 

 summer months exclude them from the forests which are to be 

 used for winter pasturage. At times the deep snows of winter 

 quite bury this plant, but horses learn to dig for it, pawing 

 away the snow to reach it. In this way they manage to keep 

 in fair condition through the season. Where this Arundinaria 

 grows it crowds out all other undergrowth. Only trees and 

 climbers can contend with it. One is struck by the enormous 

 number and variety of climbers, woody and herbaceous, both in 

 mountain and plain-land forests. These contribute much to the 

 appearance of tropical luxuriance and richness which every 

 travelled visitor remarks. 



Within the limits of an island of the size of Yesso is to be 

 found, as might be expected, a great variety of soils. It is 

 unnecessary to enter into detailed descriptions. Suffice it to 

 say that the greater portion of these soils are still virgin. 

 Until Avithin the last twenty years the Japanese people had made 

 no eifort to occupy this territory. To them it was a terra 

 incognita; to the minds of a race of tropical origin it was a 

 dreadful, frigid wilderness, peopled with ferocious wild beasts 

 and hairy men scarcely less wild. The Japanese fished upon its 

 shores in summer, and a few dwelt there ; but no attempt was 

 made to settle in the interior. The virgin soil is in many places 

 of considerable fertility notwithstanding the Japanese proverb : 

 " SJiin den wadzuka ho ho-nen,'^ which means, " The crops on 

 new land are small." The best will produce at first without 

 manures about fifty bushels of corn, two and a half tons of 

 hay, or four hundred bushels of potatoes per acre; but the soil 

 is not strong, and soon needs manure. According to analyses, 

 even the ))est is usually deficient in both phosphoric acid and 

 potash, and there is a wide extent of territory, the soil of which, 

 composed largely of volcanic scoriae and ash, is very light and 

 poor. 



The climate of Yesso is in many respe(!ts not unlike that of 

 New England ; but it is more equable — a little cooler in sinnmer 

 and warmer in winter ; and the air is more humid ; the percent- 

 age of sunshine somewhat less. The yearly means of tempera- 



