AGRICULTURE AND FORESTRY. 



the coast, even sandy dunes, certainly very poor soil, are success- 

 fully cultivated." ^ 



The onward progress of agriculture was greatly obstructed, not 

 only by insufficient means of internal communication, but also by 

 the country's isolation from the rest of the world, during the long 

 reign of the Tokugawa-Shoguns. There was no market for the 

 surplus, and consequently no strong stimulus towards any con- 

 siderable increase in production. Production was thus kept within 

 the narrow bounds of the normal domestic demand. 



The endeavour of the farmer must everywhere be to make the 

 best use of the &o\\ at his disposal, and consequently to increase the 

 products derivable from it. And it is, no doubt, one of the first 

 duties of the State to assist agriculture as much as possible in this 

 endeavour, even to stimulate it ; for there is a certain vis inertice in 

 the conservative character of agriculture and a population devoted 

 to it, which is all too well disposed to keep everything in its old 

 groove and to meet all innovations with distrust and opposition. 



From this point of view, the Japanese Government deserves full 

 recognition for its efforts to promote agriculture. Neither can one 

 withhold approval if in all this it did not disturb the organization 

 of the industry as the peasants have been used to carry it on for 

 many centuries, but turned its attention instead to regions, which 

 had not been heretofore subject to this time-honoured method of 

 farming — the island of Yezo,^ for instance, and the vast expanses of 

 the neglected forest and mountain meadows, or Haras. Cattle- 

 raising, first of all, and also agriculture, were recommended and 

 tried, but both in a different way from that formerly pursued. 



A glance at the measures employed to attain these ends enables 

 us to recognise the work of incompetent advisers, and a childish 

 changeableness in the selection of means — a jumping about from 

 one attempt to another. There was no well-considered plan laid 

 down in the beginning, and no steady, business-like carrying out of 

 any plan whatever. Naturally, therefore, the long history of these 

 attempts shows an irresponsible waste of money on the one side, 

 and for the most part a miserable result on the other. 



This is particularly true of the K aitahishi (ipronounctd kaitakshi, 

 that is " development "), the Colonial-office, for the development of 

 the resources of the island of Yezo, an institution established in 

 1869, which came to an inglorious end a few years ago. At its 

 head was placed Governor Kuroda, with the rank of a minister. 

 Having heard of the rapid development in agriculture and mining 

 in various parts of the United States, they took that country as a 

 pattern, and invited thence their advisers and officials. General 



1 Dr. Fesca : " Die Aufgaben und die Thatigheit der Agronomischen Abthei- 

 lung der Kaiserl. Japan, geol. Landesaufnahme." Yokohama, 1884. 



2 According to Lyman, this island has 7,000 sq. ri of land suitable for farming, 

 6,000 sq. ri of pasturage, 5,000 sq. ri of forest, 9,000 sq. ri of mountains. The 

 arable land, therefore, amounts to nearly 25 per cent, of the total area. 



