142 



AGRICULTURE AND FORESTRY. 



5-7 yen for a kin (600 grammes). In China it is worth 10 yen, 

 or 40 shillings. The ginseng of Manchooria fetches a much higher 

 price, especially the sort most in demand, which looks like amber, 

 and which is often paid for in five to eight times its weight of sil- 

 ver. Equally esteemed is the 

 ginseng of Corea, which is 

 still an important item in 

 exportations. In the Toku- 

 gawa period the Daimi6 of 

 Tsushima was exempt from 

 taxation, but had to furnish 

 instead a certain quantity of 

 ginseng yearly to the court 

 of the Shogun, from the 

 neighbouring Corea. 



Now that the younger 

 Japanese physicians have 

 begun to get more and more 

 acquainted with the Euro- 

 pean methods and means of 

 treating diseases, the gin- 

 seng-root has fallen very 

 much in public esteem in 

 Japan ; although its culti- 

 vation is about as great as 

 ever, and in some places 

 greater, since it is shipped 

 more and more every year 

 to China, where it always 

 finds ready purchasers. Its 

 exportation used to be in 

 the hands of the Dutch, 

 at Nagasaki ; now it takes 

 jDlace directly, mostly via 

 Osaka, through Japanese 

 and Chinese. In 1879 it 

 reached the high figure of 

 507,494 yen ; since then, 

 however, it has fallen off a 

 little. 



Ginseng is cultivated in 

 several hilly districts, at a 

 height of 300-800 meters, 

 principally in Hondo. The chief of these are : 



1. In the province of Idzumo, south of the capital Matsuye, 

 on the mountain slopes of I-wu (I-wu-gori), and on the little Radish- 

 island (Daikon-jima) in the Nakano-umi. 



2. In the province of Hoki, on the northern side of the Daisen. 



Fig. 7. 



