AGBICULTUKE OF JAPAN. 87 



mulberry would be an ample resource for us too ; and, should the morus multicaulis answer the 

 same purpose, another fever might spring up in its favor, and this time he no humbug. 



The tea-plant grows in this vicinity, and we saw the leaves in the process of drying and 

 preparation. It is probably of an inferior kind. 



The Japanese are reported to have great skill in dwarfing fruit-trees ; and, though we saw 

 none of the fairy diminutiveness described in books, yet we did see a pear-tree, between twelve 

 and eighteen inches in height, loaded with fruit. However, in the small and secluded valley of 

 Simoda we had no chance to witness the wonders of their skill in this line; nor, indeed, to 

 judge of the extent and proportions of their agriculture, further than as a small sample, like 

 unto the toe of Hercules — ex pede Herculem. According to their pictorial representations, which 

 are generally quite accurate, they prune plums, &c, very closely. The accuracy of their deli- 

 neations might be doubted from the outre and unnatural appearance of fine trees, as seen in 

 their pictures. But we had the living originals before us. They were skillfully distorted, and 

 directed from their proper development. In some, the limbs are cut out at odd places, causing 

 picturesque though unnatural shapes. In others, the lower boughs, and even the main stem 

 are led out horizontally, and so maintained by suitable restraints, with here and there a leafy 

 branch remaining, but all the rest of the stem completely denuded. 



These leafy branches are wound into coils or circles, and so retained by hoops, replaced by 

 larger ones as increasing growth requires. These trees have long and awkward arms, with 

 curious detached clumps of foliage, and it would seem to require a perverted taste to admire 

 these; yet Europeans and Americans have had evergreens clipped and worked into even more 

 fantastic forms. 



Here may be found two kinds of shrubs of lusty growth, admirably adapted to form orna- 

 mental hedges, or separated clumps, about a house. They are of graceful appearance, and 

 literally clothed with blossoms white as the mock-orange, and even more delicate. A wild 

 rose (the sweetbrier of Virginia) is also found here, and though with a smaller flower, yet with 

 all its fragrance. But this is trenching on the province of the botanist. Let me, however, 

 allude to the beautiful double-flowering cherries, &c, at Hakodadi, and to a remarkable co- 

 niferous tree in the temple yards at the same place. This has a short, soft, and most abundant 

 foliage, enveloping each twig as with a dense fringe of the deepest green. The cone is very 

 small and round; unfortunately, no seed could be procured. There were very few of these trees, 

 and an idea got abroad that they had been brought hither from Kamschatka, by the Bussians 

 under Golownin. 



In this place are numerous storehouses, not only for the safe keeping of other valuables, but 

 also for the preservation of rice and other productions of the soil ; and hence, are in part grana- 

 ries. They are remarkably well built, and beautifully finished off, being as hard and nearly 

 as smooth as our own hard walls made of plaster of Baris. These houses, though of only one 

 story, are large and commodious, being about fifty by twenty-five feet, and the walls are from 

 two to three feet in thickness. The material of which they are built is uncertain, being cov- 

 ered completely by stucco or plaster, but is probably of stone, brick, or concrete. They are 

 fire-proof, having the tops made of the same material as the walls, which are protected from 

 the weather by light wooden roofs. 



At Hakodadi large numbers of horses were seen entering and leaving the city, used as pack- 

 horses. They seemed to bring, chiefly, wood, charcoal, and dried fish, for exportation; and, 

 returning, carried out manufactured articles and means of subsistence for the people, introduced 

 from the southern islands. Indeed, the whole island of Yesso would appear to be a mass of 



