178 



been effected with great care, and with the use 

 of instruments. 



This entire work is done by the farmer and his 

 small family in very little time a proof of the 

 great depth of the loose arable soil, even after a 

 harvest ; and that the farmer could venture it 

 without troubling himself about the next crop, is 

 a sign of the boundless wealth of the soil in mineral 

 constituents. It is only when great depth of the 

 loose arable soil is combined with a plentiful store 

 of mineral constituents, that deep tillage of the 

 ground should be resorted to* 



The description here given is not a mere fiction 

 or creation of the imagination, but a faithful state- 

 ment of facts which I have witnessed hundreds of 

 times. Considering that rice requires at least from 

 1. to 1^ feet of a cultivated soil, and adding to this 

 half the height of the raised bed, viz., 1 to 1 feet, 

 this gives a cultivated depth of arable soil of from 

 2 to 3 feet. This system of working the land at 

 pleasure, either as a raised dry plot or as a swamp, 

 is indeed at present in Japan simply a proof of the 

 existence of deep tillage ; but it is clearly evident 

 that at one time it must also have been the means 

 of effecting it. If we always wait till we collect 

 a sufficient excess of manure (at the best but a very 

 relative term) before proceeding to deepen the 

 arable crust of our land, we may predict with cer- 



