260 BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 



Davenport. From this standpoint the cultivation of various organisms becomes 

 an important and necessary aid to scientific researches, and it is partly for this 

 reason that I venture to call your attention to some of the more successful of culture 

 methods practiced in Japan. 



Japan, I need hardly remind you. consists of an immense number of islands, large 

 and small. In proportion to its area, which is nearly 160,000 square miles, its coast 

 line is immense, being, roughly speaking, 20,000 miles. This is broken up into bays, 

 estuaries, inlets, and straits of all sorts and shapes, with an unusually rich fauna of 

 marine organisms everywhere. In addition, the country is dotted with lakes and 

 smaller bodies of fresh water. Put these natural conditions together with the facts 

 that the population, in some districts at least, has been extremely dense, and that 

 until within comparatively recent times hardly any animal flesh was taken as food, 

 and even at the present day the principal food of the general mass of people consists 

 of vegetables and fish — it would lie strange indeed if the cultivation of some aquatic 

 organisms had not developed under these circumstances. And such is actuallv the 

 case. For instance, the oyster culture of Hiroshima and the alga 3 culture of Tokyo 

 Bay are well-known industries which have been carried on for hundreds of years. 

 Within recent times there has been a development of a number of such enterprises, 

 some of which are interesting even from the purely scientific standpoint. It is my 

 intention to call your attention to the more important of these culture methods, giv- 

 ing preference to those which are peculiar to Japan, and which might be interesting 

 not only from the economic aspect but as a means of scientific investigation. 



THE SNAPPING TURTLE, OR SOFT-SHELL TORTOISE, "SUPPON." 



Trionyx japonicus Schlegel. 



The place occupied among gastronomical delicacies by the diamond-back terrapin 

 in America and by the green turtle in England is taken by the" suppon," or the snap- 

 ping turtle, in Japan. The three are equally esteemed and equally high priced, but 

 the Japanese epicure has this advantage over his brothers of other lands — he has no 

 longer any fear of having the supply of the luscious reptile exhausted. This desirable 

 condition is owing to the successful efforts of a Mr. Hattori, who has spared no pains 

 to bring his turtle farms to a high pitch of perfection and is able to turn out tens 

 of thousands of these reptiles every year. As his are. so far as I am aware, the only 

 turtle farms in the world which are highly successful, a description of his establish- 

 ment and methods will. I think, prove interesting and serve as a guide to those who 

 may have similar undertakings in view. In passing I may remark that I have known 

 Mr. Hattori these twenty years and have spent, a number of summers on his original 

 farm, collecting, with his kind consent, ample materials for my studies on the devel- 

 opment of Chelonia. In return, .Mr. Hattori is kind enough to say some of the facts 

 and suggestions I have been able to give him, based on my ctnbryological studies, 

 have been of service in carrying out improvements. 



The Hattori family has lived a long time in Fukagawa, a suburb of Tokyo, which 

 lies on the "•Surrey" side of the Sutnida River, and which, having been originally 

 reclaimed from the sea, is low and full of lumber ponds" and until recently of paddy 



a Ponds in w hich lumber is kepi soaked in water. 



