364 APPENDIX G. 



replaced by nature (the atmosphere and the rain), the remainder I 

 must restore to the ground ; the manner in which this is done is a 

 matter of indifference. That the produce of the land has first 

 to pass through the human body before it can be returned to the 

 soil, is, as far as manuring is concerned, simply a necessary evil, 

 which always involves a certain loss. As to the intermediate stage 

 of cattle feeding, which we deem so requisite in our system, the 

 Japanese farmer cannot at all see its necessity. He argues in his 

 way that it must cost a great deal of unnecessary and expensive 

 labour to have the produce of the field first eaten by cattle, so 

 troublesome and expensive to breed, and that this system must in- 

 volve more considerable loss of matter than his own. How much 

 .more simple it must be to eat the corn yourself, and to produce 

 your own manure ! Far from me be it, however, upon the ground 

 of the so widely differing results to which the developement of 

 agriculture has led in the two lands, to pass judgement upon our 

 system of husbandry, and to exalt unduly that of the Japanese by 

 attributing superior intelligence to that nation. Circumstances 

 have brought about the results in question, and the following more 

 especially have exercised a decided influence in the matter. The 

 religious belief of the two great sects in Japan, the Sintoists and 

 the Buddhists, forbids the eating of flesh, and not alone of flesh, 

 but of everything derived from animals (milk, butter, cheese) ; this 

 prohibition, of course, disposes of one of the principal objects for 

 which cattle are bred. Even sheep, if kept for the wool alone, 

 would not pay, as our farmers begin to find out even in Germany. 



The very limited area of the homesteads in Japan also makes 

 the maintaining of cattle superfluous. The smallness of the farms 

 must not be attributed, however, to any excessive tendency to sub- 

 division of landed property, but to the fact that the land belongs 

 to the great princes or Daimios of the country, Vho have bestowed 

 it in fee upon the lower, nobility. The latter, again, being pre- 

 cluded by the institutions of the country from farming their own 

 estates, have parcelled the land out, apparently from time imme- 

 morial, on perpetual leases, among the peasantry of the country. 

 The size of these farms varies from two to five acres ; the limita- 

 tion having been most likely determined either by their natural 

 position, or from the course of some brook or rivulet. Now, as 

 this limited area is intersected moreover by drains and ditches, it 

 will be readily seen that there is hardly a plot of ground to be 

 found where the use of beasts of burden might be profitably had 

 recourse to. 



Now, with us matters are very different in these respects. We 

 have a notion that we could not possibly exist in health and vigour 

 without a considerable consumption of meat, although we have 

 the fact constantly before our eyes, that our labourers, who assur- 

 edly require as much strength as any other class of society, are, 

 for the most part, involuntary Buddhists. Our farms are always 



