26 AGRICULTURE AND FORESTRY. 



in consequence of the development of their residence, Yedo. Its 

 soil has the reputation, among the Japanese themselves, of being 

 less fertile than that of many other parts of the country, especially 

 of the richly watered plain of Mino, the plain of Hiroshima, 

 the province of Higo. But of these we have no analysis. 



In the Japanese system of soil-improvement, stable manure and 

 rotation of crops play only a subordinate role. The productive 

 capacity of arable land is gained and maintained by sub-soil work- 

 ing, appropriate use of the manure which is on hand, proper 

 watering, and extraordinary care in working their fields and 

 keeping them clear. 



The East Asiatic knows and has followed, from time immemorial, 

 the important principle of rational farming, that the soil must receive 

 back in manure what is withdrawn from it in crops, although his 

 action is no more based on scientific knowledge than is that of an old- 

 school German peasant. But, for all that, he must be acknowledged 

 to have more circumspection and more intelligence in selecting and 

 using manure. Much that the rational farmer in Europe had to 

 learn through theory and experiment, was in part an old-estab- 

 lished practice in the agriculture of countries of the Chinese civili- 

 zation. And this circumstance, together with a favourable climate, 

 is undoubtedly the reason why the soil in China and Japan has 

 preserved its old productive power, notwithstanding that, in 

 Japan at least, as we have seen, it is not at all fertile by nature. 



Nowhere else in the world is manure (Japanese, Koyashi or 

 Koye) more carefully and industriously collected and drawn from 

 various sources, or more rationally utilized, than in East-Asia. 

 The droppings of beasts of burden along the roads is usually taken 

 up on the cheapest conceivable shovel, a flat ear-shell (Haliotis) 

 on the end of a stick, and carried to the fields in baskets. At no 

 time of year, however, does the Japanese put manure on fallow- 

 fields, there to dry up and be robbed by the wind of its most 

 valuable element. And various as the materials may be which are 

 thus turned to account, care is always taken to get them quickly into 

 the ground, where they can begin to operate. The Japanese does 

 not so much manure the soil as the plants themselves, knowing that 

 only in this way a satisfactory result can be obtained. He pro- 

 vides the places where seed is planted or sprouts are set, with 

 manure. As they grow, he supplies the plants with new manure 

 at regular intervals. And thus he follows the most direct and 

 economical method conceivable, which we ^call " head-manuring " 

 (Kopf-diingung). 



Stable manure, the chief fertilizer in our economy, is of minor 

 importance in Japan, because stock is so scarce ; and only in moun- 

 tainous districts, with their wide grassy stretches and greater need 

 for beasts of burden, has it much significance. Here, one can 

 sometimes see dung piled up in front of peasants' houses, as in 

 many a German village. Cattle and horses, — the only domestic 



