JAPANESE HUSBANDRY. 373 



of manure on hand, a ratio not disturbed here by artificial means 

 or by any ' tour de force? Expressed in other words, the in- 

 come and expenditure of the soil are always kept evenly bal- 

 anced. 



I have seen this system carried out to the fullest attainable 

 degree in the vicinity of large towns, such as Jeddo, also in par- 

 ticularly fertile valleys, and on fields bordering on the great high- 

 ways. Here crop succeeded crop, manure followed manure. 

 Here the plot of ground produced much more than could be con- 

 sumed on it ; but the great city and the privies on the high road 

 returned a supply of manure to balance the export of produce. 



I have, however, also had occasion to visit farms situated on 

 some hilly part far away from the high road, and only recently 

 reclaimed and cultivated. As the Japanese farmer, as a general 

 rule, prefers the valleys to the hilly ground, the supply of manure 

 here is more restricted and more difficult, and any addition to it 

 from towns or by travellers is almost altogether out of the ques- 

 tion. Here I found occasionally only one crop on the ground ; 

 yet the rows were so wide asunder that another crop would have 

 found ample space between them. With this system it is at least 

 possible to till properly and repeatedly the intervening spaces, 

 which are intended to receive the next crop ; besides the constant 

 supply of fresh earth to the present crop, by raking, places a 

 larger store of soil at the disposal of the latter than could be done 

 in any other way. In this manner only the one-half of the field 

 (corresponding to the limited supply of manure) is actually made 

 to produce ; but the system of planting the crop in drills wide 

 asunder always gives a much more abundant return than could 

 possibly be obtained, if the one-half of the field as a continuous 

 plot were completely sown, the other half being allowed to lie 

 fallow. As the home production of manure or the importation of 

 it from other parts, increases, the farmer proceeds to fill part also 

 of the vacant rows, which thus leaves only the third or fourth 

 part of the field fallow, until, at last, every row is made to produce 

 crops. 



How wide the difference between this system and ours! 

 When we break up and till a plot of ground, we begin by extract- 

 ing from it three or four harvests, without bestowing a particle of 

 manure, and apply manure only when the soil is exhausted. 

 The Japanese husbandman never breaks up a plot of land, unless he 

 possesses a small stock of manure, which he may invest in the 

 ground ; and even then he only cultivates this new plot to the ex- 

 tent his supply of manure will permit. This rational proceeding 

 shows the deepest insight into the nature of the system of agri- 

 culture to be pursued with a reasonable prospect of securing a 

 constant succession of remunerative crops. No other illustration 

 can so clearly show the difference between our European way of 

 viewing the matter and the Japanese. We, in Europe, cut down 



