366 APPENDIX G. 



capacity of from 8 to 12 cubic feet, let into the ground nearly to 

 tlie brim. It is in these vessels that the manure is prepared for 

 the field. The excrements are diluted with water, no other addi- 

 tion of any kind being made to them, and stirred until the entire 

 mass is worked into a most intimately intermixed fine pap. In 

 rainy weather, the vessel is covered with a moveable roof to shield 

 it from the rain ; in dry weather this is removed, to allow the 

 action of the sun and wind. The solid ingredients of the pap grad- 

 ually subside, and fermentation sets in ; the water evaporates. By 

 this time the vessel in the privy is again ready for emptying. A 

 fresh quantity of water is added, the whole mass is again stirred 

 and most intimately mixed together, in short, treated exactly like 

 the first emptying. The same process is repeated, until the cask 

 or pan is full. After the last supply of excrements, and thorough 

 mixing, the mass is left, according to the state of the weather, for 

 two or three weeks longer, or until it is required for use ; but under 

 no circumstance is the manure ever employed in the fresh state. 



THIS ENTIRE OOUESE OF PROCEEDING CLEARLY SHOWS THAT THE JAP- 

 ANESE ARE NO PARTISANS OF THE NITROGEN THEORY, AND THAT THEY 

 ONLY CARE FOR THE SOLID INGREDIENTS OF THE DUNG. They leave 



the ammonia exposed to decomposition by the action of the sun, and 

 its volatilisation by the wind, but take the greater care to shield the 

 solid ingredients from being wasted or swept away by rain, &c. As 

 the peasant, however, pays his rent to his landlord not in cash, but 

 in a certain stipulated percentage of the produce of his fields, he 

 argues quite logically that the supply of manure from his privy 

 must necessarily be insufficient to prevent the gradual exhaustion 

 of the soil of his farm ; notwithstanding the marvellous richness 

 of the latter, and in spite of the additional supply of manuring 

 matter derived from the water of the brook or canal from which 

 he takes his material for irrigation. He places, therefore, wher- 

 ever his field is bordered by public roads, footpaths, &c., casks or 

 pots buried in the ground nearly to the rim, urgently requesting 

 the travelling public to make use of the same. To show how 

 universally the economical value of manure is felt and appreciated 

 in all classes of society in Japan, from the highest to the lowest, I 

 need simply state the fact that, in all my wanderings through the 

 country, even in the most remote valleys, and in the homesteads 

 and cottages of the very poorest of the peasantry, I never could 

 discover, even in the most secret and secluded corners, the least 

 trace of human excrements. How very different with us, in Ger- 

 many, where it may be seen lying about in every direction, even 

 close to privies ! 



I need not mention that the manure thus left by benevolent 

 travellers is treated exactly in the same way as the family manure. 



But the excrements of the peasant contain also some other 

 matter, which has not been derived from the soil of his fields, and 

 which may be said to represent an additional importation of ma- 



