AGRICULTURAL INDUSTRIES. 2g 



When such a boat reaches its destination, its contents, already 

 thinned with water, are baled out with dippers by Hiakusho 

 (peasants). Small tubs on long poles serve for dipping out and 

 transferring the manure, and still smaller ones for distributing it to 

 the plants. Thus the plants are manured and watered at the same 

 time. All young winter produce and vegetables are treated in this 

 way, but never rice. 



It is only in time of a great abundance that this manure is col- 

 lected in little vats sunk in the fields, and in big buried casks and 

 tubs, roofed over with straw, for later use. As a rule, it is applied 

 direct and fresh, so that its strength, especially of ammonia, is kept 

 from being dissipated. 



In many Japanese cities the carrying away of cesspool matter 

 is provided for by companies under whose employ are the above- 

 mentioned Koye-tori. These companies pay the householders for 

 this privilege prices which rise and fall with the time of year, 

 according to the demand. They are highest in spring, falling off 

 in winter frequently by more than one-half Ten years ago the 

 average price in Yokohama for a ka (a man's burden, here two 

 bucketfuls) was from six to eight sen. Three years ago it rose to 

 ten sen ; in April, to twelve and a half, and in this month the 

 company sold the manure to farmers for fourteen and fifteen sen 

 per ka. In Tokio, where the demand is less in proportion to the 

 enormous amount exported, the prices arc relatively lower ; in 

 many smaller places, higher. It is comparatively within recent 

 times that cesspool manure has become of any value and an object 

 of purchase with us, as in Stuttgart, where it is bought by the 

 Suabian peasants. 



A great role is also played by compost (Koyc-tsuchi, manure- 

 earth, or Koyashi-tsuchi). This is prepared from earth and every 

 possible sort of vegetable and animal offal, and is often moistened 

 with dung-water, or even with water merely, in order to hasten de- 

 composition. Lime is never used for this purpose. On being applied, 

 compost often receives an addition of dung or even of green manure. 



Fish-guano is the most expensive and highly-prized of animal 

 manures. It is an important article of commerce, made up of the 

 offal of various kinds of fish, but especially of several varieties of 

 herring, for example the Nishin {Cliipea Jiarengiis), the Iwashi 

 {Clupea inelanosticta and CI. gracilis), and the Isaza {Engratclis 

 ''aponicus). These fish appear in great shoals, in starch and 

 April, and again in October and November, off certain parts of 

 the Japanese coast, the eastern shore of Yezo, for instance, the 

 coast of Hitachi, along the shores of the Japan Sea, etc. They 

 are not smoked or salted, as in Europe, but chiefly caught for the 

 sake of a kind of train-oil, while their ill-smelling remains, when 

 dried, appear in commerce as manure. After the oil has been 

 extracted by boiling the fish in water, the remains are spread out 

 in the fields, dried in the sun, and then exported either loose or 



