SALT. 311 



from sea-water. The Japanese method of salt-producing is exactly 

 the same as that employed in China, described, e.g., by Fortune.^ 

 In the summary of Japanese agricultural product, given on page 1 1, 

 one division of the soil is designated Shio-hama, or salt-coasts. 

 These are flat sandy strips of coast, in all 6,364 cho or hectare, 

 which are devoted to the extraction of salt from sea-water. 



The sandy flat coast, to make a salt garden, must lie out of 

 reach of the tide. It is divided usually into fields of 2\ tan or 25 

 are, each one worked by two men. They smooth it to a perfect 

 level, and cover it with an even coat of well pounded clay. On 

 this they spread a thick layer of coarse sand, carefuly raked over. 

 This is then wet with sea-water, which is carried by little ditches 

 through the garden, and repeated after each evaporation till a con- 

 siderable amount of salt has been left in the sand. This is raked 

 up together for leaching in a kind of filter, by the addition of sea- 

 water whose amount of salt is thereby greatly increased. The sand 

 is then spread out to dry, and again wetted with salt water, etc., as 

 before. The brine is collected in ditches or tubs and poured into 

 the boiling pans whose construction resembles the contrivances used 

 for drying tea (see p. 118 b). These salt pans are usually 2-2 J 

 meters long, i-| meters broad, and about half a meter in depth. 

 The pans consist of a frame-work of woven bamboo, plastered in- 

 side and out with clay cement, and supported by two beams with 

 wooden cross pieces. Wood is used as fuel for the evaporating 

 process, chiefly the branches (and needles also) of conifers. Coal 

 is also used. There are besides large iron evaporating pans called 

 Shio-gama, but they appear to be little in use compared with the 

 arrangements described above. 



Japanese sea-salt is far less pure than that from the shores of the 

 Mediterranean, has a grey-white colour, and with 8 to 12 per cent, 

 of water, contains only 80 to 90 per cent, of chloride of sodium. 

 Its preparation is not a government monopoly, as in China, and is 

 carried on in many places along the coast, especially in the south, 

 most of all along the Japanese Seto-uchi (Inland Sea), on the coast 

 of lyo, Sanuki, Awa and the provinces of Sanyodo. The coast of 

 Satsuma also has salt fields already mentioned, e.g., at Akune. At 

 Kanazawa, in the vicinity of Yokohama, a considerable amount of 

 salt is produced. 



According to Geerts,^ the yearly salt production of the Japanese 



escapes from it, and much ferric hydrate is precipitated. It is said to have 

 been used many centuries for salt extraction, but for the last twenty years 

 it has flowed unutihzed into the brook. Ascending still higher along the road, 

 I found a third weaker salt spring with 20° temperature, this change proceeding 

 from cold water flowing into it. 



^ " A Residence among the Chinese," pp. 305, 306. 



2 "Les produits de la nature japonaise etchinoise," Yokohama, 1883, p. 308. 

 This book contains many valuable statements, which unfortunately, however, 

 must be used with care, owing to the lack of judgment with which others of 

 a different character are mingled with them. 



