AGRICULTURAL INDUSTRIES. 



hands, they draw it through the steel or bamboo nails of a kind of 

 comb like a flax-rippler (Ine-kogi or Mugi-kogi) of from thirty to 

 forty centimeters in diameter, thus separating the ears and panicles 

 from the straw. Instead of a rippler of this sort, poorer people 

 use a piece of bamboo-cane cut in the shape of a fork or a comb 

 (Kushi) of the same material. The panicles of rice and millet, or 

 rather the grains themselves, are also often separated from the 

 straw by beating the stalks against the edge of a tub. It will be 

 asked : Have the Japanese no flails t We do find them in use, 

 under the name of Kara-sao and Kururi, but in an exceedingly 

 clumsy, inadequate shape. They consist of cylindrical pieces of 

 wood, tied by ropes to poles, so that it is impossible to strike out 

 well, or to beat hard with them. And the ears of grain are only 

 threshed after being broken from their stalks by the above-men- 

 tioned processes. The threshers stand in two rows opposite each 

 other, and each row strikes in unison, so that there is no such 

 pleasant triple and quadruple beating of flails as salutes the ear 

 from the threshing-floors in the German peasant villages in autumn. 



Another method of separating the grains from the ears or 

 panicles is by means of a stamping trough (Usu). When they 

 are, in one way or another, separated from the chaff, the cleaning 

 is not done on the threshing-floor with pitchforks, but, as in 

 almost all warm countries, with the help of the wind, the mixture 

 being held out at arm's length, in a sieve, where there is a draught, 

 and then let fall to the ground. The light chaff, of course, flies 

 away from the grain, the reverse of what happens on the threshing- 

 floor by using the fan. 



With leguminous plants, the pods are generally opened and de- 

 prived of their contents by hand, and less often with mortar and 

 pestle. But for rape-seed, the pods are opened by beating the 

 stalks against the edge of a tub or a basket. 



Seed is said to be sown broadcast, or in rows. In sowing broad- 

 cast, the sower strides up and down his field in lines and with 

 measured paces, and scatters the seed in regular movement, with a 

 wide sweeping motion of his right arm, trying to cover it afterwards 

 with harrow or rake, as the piece of ground is large or small. But 

 this never succeeds perfectly, for the seeds are not all buried to 

 the same depth, and some always remain on the surface, and go 

 to waste. And then, too, the distribution is often very unequal, 

 being dependent on the sower's skill, the lay of the land, the 

 weather (for example, the presence or absence of wind), and other 

 matters. In row-planting, the seeds are put into the ground at 

 a more equal depth and distance, and into open holes, from two 

 to ten centimeters deep, and then covered to an even height with 

 loose earth. 



Drilling 1 is essentially the same thing, except that it is done with 

 machines constructed especially for the purpose, whereas ordinary 

 1 See C. J. Eisbein : "Die Drill-cultur." Bonn, 1880. 



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