AGRICULTURAL INDUSTRIES. 17 



above all other peaks of the land, covered with snow for ten 

 months of the year, and a weather-sign and prognostic for farmers 

 and sailors. It is the most popular mountain in Japan, and the 

 one most visited by pilgrims. It is found reproduced on many 

 works of decorative art. 



Hot springs, especially neutral, and sulphur springs, are 

 numerous ; and no province is wanting in them. Earthquakes 

 and their accompanying floods, as well as mighty eruptions, 

 with their showers of ashes and streams of lava, have from 

 time to time thrown the country into terror and partly devas- 

 tated it. 



The predominatingly mountainous character of Japan and the 

 peculiar method of farming, with rice as the chief staple, confine 

 agriculture more or less to the plains and the valley bottoms ; and 

 this fact accounts for the low percentage of cultivated land. A 

 larger part of the soil is indisputably fit for cultivation, so in Yezo 

 and the north of Hondo and particularly of the Hara, and in many 

 of the glades among the mountain forests ; but this amount is 

 not as great as is often maintained. To bring this land under 

 cultivation, however, an altogether different method must be 

 employed, and must go hand-in-hand with the establishment of 

 better means of communication, with the development of cattle- 

 raising, — bringing about, as the latter would, a proper system 

 of manuring, — and with the introduction of a more comprehen- 

 sive method of management, involving more appropriate ap- 

 pliances and machines, not to mention rotation of crops and 

 many other improvements. All this would completely transform 

 the domestic and business habits of the peasants, and for this 

 reason alone cannot take place in a day, but must come about 

 gradually and without arbitrary interference from the organs of 

 Government. 



Dr. Fesca proves convincingly, from several examples, that of 

 the three deciding factors upon which agriculture depends, — " the 

 general agricultural conditions, the soil, and climate," — the first is 

 more influential than the second, and has indisputably hindered 

 very much the development of Japanese agriculture. *'The cost 

 of transporting rice, which is the highest priced product, — fifty 

 kilogrammes being worth about five marks, — amounts to the market 

 price of the rice itself by the time it has been carried only twenty 

 geographical miles, on the best highways, while in Germany, 

 according to Settegast, wheat and other grain, at only twice that 

 market price, say ten marks per fifty kilo., can be transported on 

 ordinary roads 66-6j miles, on turnpikes lOO miles, and by rail 

 400 miles, before the cost of carriage reaches the market price. 

 And on the poorer roads of Japan, rice does not bear a transport- 

 ation of five miles. We find accordingly, that at some distance 

 from the coast, even good soil has not been brought under cultiva- 

 tion, where the margin of profit is too narrow for it, while near 



II. C 



