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the purpose of irrigation, so the impermeability of 

 the stratum underlying the surface-soil in the 

 valleys enables the Japanese husbandman to turn 

 the soil at pleasure into a swamp for the cultiva- 

 tion of rice. 



Whichever way one may feel inclined to decide 

 the question whether the -present fruitfulness of 

 the soil is simply the artificial product of culti- 

 vation continued for several thousand years, 

 or whether this fertility existed from the begin- 

 ning, making this people cherish and prize the 

 labours of agriculture this much must be granted 

 however, that the clay of the diluvium, the 

 mild climate, and abundant water, afforded all the 

 conditions, and the most convenient means, for a 

 thriving cultivation. 



All these natural advantages have been most 

 carefully turned to account by an industrious, 

 ingenious, and sober people ; and husbandry in 

 Japan has become a truly national occupation. 

 The Japanese have thoroughly mastered the diffi- 

 culty of maintaining agriculture in a state of the 

 highest perfection, although the pursuit is entirely 

 confined to peasants and yeomen, who take rank 

 in the sixth (and last but one) class of the 

 social scale ; and no Japanese gentleman is a farmer. 

 There are no agricultural institutions for instruc- 

 tion in husbandry, no agricultural societies, no 

 academies, no periodical press to disseminate the 



