22 AGRICULTURE AND FORESTRY, 



simple smoothed earth-walls, 25 to 40 centimeters in thickness and 

 height ; though to support the terraces great works must be con- 

 structed along the walls of the valleys. So then we find Cyclo- 

 pean walls, not seldom built of boulders from the neighbouring 

 river, or broader, grassy escarpments, upon which, in the south, 

 tea-bushes, the wax-tree, or the paper-mulberry have here and there 

 been planted. 



There is only an apparent, not a real, contradiction between this 

 last-mentioned fact, that terraces are often used for raising rice, 

 and my former assertion that, in many travellers' accounts the ex- 

 tent of terrace-farming in Japan is much exaggerated. And this 

 latter is easily seen from the low percentage of all cultivated land. 



There were formerly no enclosed estates in Japan, nor pasturing 

 herds. It was the universal habit to respect the fields and what was 

 growing there. Thus there w^as neither opportunity nor reason to 

 fence them in at all by means of ditches, walls, hedges, etc.; and 

 separate pieces of land lay side by side, and do so yet, although 

 receiving different kinds of cultivation. And in the plains and 

 valleys, in order to save as much land as possible for the ever- 

 important rice, dwelling-houses were built shoulder to shoulder in 

 villages, and in a line with the roads. On this account, villages 

 and country towns often lie along the chief avenues of communi- 

 cation, with no side streets to speak of, or are strung out on the 

 borders of small plains. No vehicles of any description are used 

 in Japanese agriculture, so that narrow lanes accommodate the 

 general trade from place to place, and still narrower dams between 

 fields serve frequently as footpaths. 



As we have seen, agriculture in Japan is confined to a little over 

 one-tenth of the country's area. And yet, not only is a very large 

 population fed, but in favourable years there is also a not incon- 

 siderable exportation of rice. It would be natural to conclude 

 from this that the farming-land of Japan is distinguished by great 

 fertility ; and up to within very recent times this assertion has 

 been often made. But it is by no means true. On the other 

 hand, experience and even chemical analysis have shown that 

 without most careful attention and manuring, the soil of Japan 

 could in most cases produce no very favourable returns. Without 

 properly understanding or applying the principle of rotation, the 

 Japanese secures these results by subsoil working and loosening of 

 the ground, by keeping it clear, or by repeated treatment with 

 manure while the plants are growing, which last is possible with 

 such crops only as are sown in rows and terraces. To this must be 

 added plentiful watering, through rainfall or irrigation, and lastly 

 the efifect of long, uninterrupted summer heat. 



Crops in Japan are seldom injured by untimely frosts or severe 

 cold, and probably never, to any real extent, by mice or locusts. 

 Among their living foes come, first, wild swine, which are very 

 numerous, and then apes. On the edges of the forest and valley- 



