14 AGRICULTURE AND FORESTRY. 



green varieties through all the shades of dull-green, white, yellow, 

 red, and brown of the deciduous sorts. The nights grow colder, 

 till, towards the end of the month, the change of season is quickly 

 concluded with the first frosts, and winter quiet prevails in wood and 

 field. From this time on, most of the trees are bare of leaves, at 

 least in Central and Northern Japan, and the turf appears much 

 duller and more lifeless than with us. 



As in all Eastern Asia, so in Japan, winter is the dry season, in 

 which there prevail mostly a clear sky, high pressure and low tem- 

 perature — the last especially at night, and when the monsoon has 

 been blowing for several days with unusual force. On such days, in 

 January and February, there may appear in Japan, though quite 

 exceptionally, those dust-storms which make winter so disagree- 

 able in China. The light, porous soil is whirled about, the sun 

 loses its lustre and the winter grain in the fields its firm hold. 

 And the thermometer sinks during the night to —9° or — 10° Centi- 

 grade in Tokio, and approaches the freezing-point even in the day- 

 time. Night-frosts occur from November till March ; and the mean 

 temperature for this winter of five months is only 5"5° C. This 

 shows that the cold is far too great to admit of vegetable growth, 

 although never very severe, and that therefore the fruits of the 

 field have a long period of rest. The mean temperature from 

 April to October is 20° C, and from June to September, the four 

 hottest months, 23-5° C. The greatest heat, 34-35° C, comes to- 

 wards the end of July or in the beginning of August, but does not 

 last long. 



From the sea-level to the mountain-tops the elevation is more 

 than 3,000 metres, and the country extends over twenty-seven 

 degrees of latitude, so that there is great diversity of climate. 

 The Bonin-islands and Riukiu (partly of coral structure) in the 

 south approach the tropic of Cancer, while Yezo and the Kuriles 

 are related to Siberia, in situation and climate ; and their coasts have 

 cold ^o^^y summers and long winters, in consequence of the above- 

 mentioned polar current. Thus the meteorological observations 

 for 1883 gave a variation in mean temperature between 167° C. 

 in Kagoshima (31° 30' N. lat.) and 6-5° C in Sapporo (43° 4 N. 

 lat), over a stretch of country as wide as from Lyons to Memel. 

 It is apparent from this, and from observations at the intervening 

 stations, that the mean annual temperature in Japan falls on the 

 average 0-9° C. for every degree of latitude going north — a re- 

 latively rapid change. It is considerably lower than on the same 

 parallels in the west of Europe. For example, the station Nobiru, 

 in latitude 38° on the Pacific, has the same mean annual tempera- 

 ture as Cork and Valentia in Ireland, in latitude 52°. The differ- 

 ence is ascribable to the long winters of Japan, with their rela- 

 tively low temperatures, on account of which the climate of Japan 

 approaches that of the continent of Asia. Thus Nagasaki, in 

 latitude 32° 44', has the same mean winter temperature as Mont- 



