i84 AGRICULTURE AND FORESTRY. 



botrya, Miq., and other species) and the Kudzu {Piieraria Thun- 

 bergiaiia^ Benth.). It is mown with the sickle — enough for the 

 sHght demand — and brought home on the backs of men and 

 horses, and then spread out before the house to dry in the sun. 

 It is turned with sickles or poles, but never with rakes. 



The horse has hitherto been used mostly as a beast of burden, 

 and only secondarily for riding. As a draught-animal it has had 

 no place at all, except in ploughing ; for the few heavy Kuruma, or 

 wagons that existed, e.g., in Kioto, for the Mikado and the Kuge, 

 or for the goods-traffic between Kioto and Otzu, have been drawn 

 by oxen since far-distant times. 



Marion in his day remarked that he saw only stallions in Yedo, 

 Yokohama, and Nagasaki. If he had penetrated farther into the 

 country, he would have found districts where only mares were used 

 as beasts of burden. This was because there was no castration, 

 and stallions are so liable to become unmanageable in the presence 

 of mares ; so the old regulations arose, separating pack-horses and 

 riding-horses according to sexes and by districts. 



Asses and mules were unknown. 



Cattle, Jap. Ushi (0-ushi or Kotoi, the bull ; Me-ushi, the cow ; 

 Ko-ushi, the calf), were formerly kept only for carrying burdens, 

 drawing the plough and the few wagons in use, but never for their 

 milk and flesh. The breed is large, well-built, and capable of being 

 fattened, with high withers, tapering back, and predominant black 

 colour, with a shimmer of brown — a colour like that of the Hun- 

 garian and Podolian cattle of the Steppes. The cows, as with that 

 race too, have small udders, and resemble it also in that their milk 

 belongs exclusively to the sucking calf, and dries up as soon as the 

 calf is weaned. 



Goats (Hitsuji in the Chinese zodiac) and sheep (Rashamen and 

 Menyo) were formerly quite unknown. They are said to have 

 been brought into the country at different times and mostly by 

 the Portuguese and Dutch, but have not spread. I do not know 

 whether the attempt on the part of the government, in the last ten 

 years, to introduce sheep-raising, has met with much better success. 

 However, I must not fail to mention that Gaertner expressed the 

 opinion that the soil and climate of Japan were ill-adapted to sheep- 

 raising, because the fodder they produce is too long and juicy, and 

 that all attempts hitherto made to domesticate sheep have failed 

 for this reason. As to the unfitness of the soil, I have my doubts. 

 But in view of the fact that sheep-raising succeeds best in countries 

 with a dry climate, the chief obstacle to it in Japan is more likely 

 to be in the damp atmosphere and frequent summer rains. 



Swine (Buta), so highly esteemed by the Chinese, and brought 

 by them to Japan, were not bred much here before the opening up 

 of the country and the increased demand for their flesh on the part 

 of foreigners ; and even still they are found only in the vicinity of 

 the larger towns. Formerly the inhabitant of the country districts 



