JAPANESE HUSBANDRY. 367 



nure. The river, brooks, and canals, and the numerous little 

 bays, abound in fish, which the religion of the Japanese permits 

 him to eat, a permission of which he most largely avails himself. 

 Fishes, crabs, lobsters, and snails are eaten in quantities, and these 

 ultimately afford a most valuable item of contribution to the privy, 

 and consequently to the fertilising field-manure. 



The Japanese farmer prepares also compost. As he keeps no 

 cattle to turn his straw, &c., into manure, he is forced to incorpo- 

 rate this part of his produce with the soil without ' animalisation.'- 

 The method pursued to effect this object consists simply in the 

 concentration of the materials. Chaff, chopped straw, horse-dung, 

 excrement gathered in the highways, tops and leaves of turnips, 

 peelings of yams and sweet potatoes, and all the offal of the farm, 

 are carefully mixed with a little mould, shovelled up in small 

 pyramidal heaps, moistened and covered with a straw thatch. I 

 often saw also in this compost heaps of shells of mussels and 

 snails, with which most of the rivulets and brooks abound, and 

 which, in all parts close to the seashore, may be obtained in any 

 quantities. The compost heaps are occasionally moistened and 

 turned with the shovel, and thus the process of decomposition 

 proceeds rapidly, under the powerful action of the sun. I have 

 also often seen the shorter process of reduction by fire resorted to 

 when there was plenty of straw, or where the manure was required 

 for use before it could be got ready by the fermentation process. 



The half-charred mass was, in such cases, in so far as my own 

 observation enabled me to judge, strewed directly on the seed 

 sown in the ground. 



I think the treatment of this compost is another proof that the 

 Japanese farmer does not care for the azotised matters, and that 

 he strives to destroy all organic substances in his manure before 

 making use of it. The great object of the Japanese farmer in all 

 this is to turn Ms manure to account as promptly as possible. 



To attain this end, besides preparing his manures in the man- 

 ner described, he has recourse also to the following means : 



1. He applies his manures, and particularly his chief manure 

 derived from his privy, invariably as much as possible in the liquid 

 form. 



2. He knows no other mode of manuring than that of top- 



When he wishes to sow, the land is laid in furrows, in the way 

 to be more fully described hereafter, and the seed is strewn by 

 hand, and covered with a thin and even layer of compost, over 

 which liquefied and very dilute privy manure is poured. The 

 manure is diluted in the buckets in which it is carried from the 

 preparing tubs or pots to the seed furrow, as this is the only way 

 to ensure uniform intermixing of the materials. As this manure 

 has fully fermented, it may without danger be brought into imme- 

 diate contact with the seed, and thus materially assist the first 

 radication. 



