JAPANESE * HUSBANDRY. 369' 



kind. In the evening long strings of coolies are met with on the 

 road, who having in the morning carried the produce of the coun- 

 try to the town, are returning home each with two buckets of ma- 

 nure, not in a solid or concentrated form, but fresh from the privies. 

 Caravans of packhorses, which often have brought manufactured 

 articles (silk, oil, lacquered goods, &c.), a distance of 200 to 300 

 miles from the interior to the capital, are sent home again freighted 

 with baskets or buckets of manure ; in such cases, however, care, 

 is taken to select solid excrements. 



Thus in Japanese agriculture we have before us the represen- 

 tation of a perfect circulation of the forces of nature : no link in 

 the chain is ever lost, one is always interlaced with the other. 



I cannot refrain here from drawing a parallel in this respect 

 between the Japanese and our system. In our large farms we sell 

 a portion of the productive power of our soil in the form of corn, 

 turnips, or potatoes ; but our carts which convey the products to 

 the town or to the gates of the factory, bring back no compensa- 

 tion. One of the links of the chain is lost. There is another por- 

 tion of our produce devoted to the feeding of large herds of cattle, 

 of which a considerable amount is sent forth in the form of fat 

 cattle, milk, butter, or wool ; this again is never returned, and 

 thus a second link of the chain is lost. Another small portion we 

 and our labourers consume. This last portion at least might be 

 turned to proper account, if we only knew, like the Japanese, to 

 save and use it more carefully and wisely. Will any one venture 

 to assert that the privy manure of our farms is of the least real 

 importance ? I verily believe that, under present circumstances, 

 the privy manure of an estate of a thousand acres would be barely 

 sufficient for half an acre of ground. There remains, then, from 

 our present agricultural system, out of the entire productive power 

 withdrawn by the crops from the soil, only that portion returned 

 by our cattle, a small part indeed of the whole, if we take into 

 consideration its bulk, and reflect in how concentrated a form we 

 have disposed of the rest of that power in the shape of grain, milk, 

 or wool. 



It may be objected, I am quite aware, that it is strange that 

 our system of keeping large stocks of cattle does succeed in lead- 

 ing to a high state of cultivation and abundant produce. I admit 

 the fact, only let us ascertain first its true significance. It is, above 

 all, necessary to settle about the true acceptation of the term ' cul- 

 ture.' If by ' culture ' is.meant the capability of the soil to give 

 permanently high produce, by way of real interest on the capital 

 of the soil, I must altogether deny that our farms (with perhaps a 

 few exceptions), can properly be said to be in a satisfactory state 

 of culture. But we have by excellent tillage and a peculiar meth- 

 od of manuring, put them in a condition to make the entire pro- 

 ductive power of the soil available, and thus to give immediately 

 full crops. It is not, however, the interest that we obtain in such 



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