Extracts from Diary in Japan. 79 



forms the food of the Japanese. In other words, it is 

 estimated that eight adults live from the produce of one 

 acre, and keep it in heart as above stated. To go minutely 

 into this subject would make the paper too long, but it has 

 been carefully calculated. In England the excreta from 800 

 to 1200 persons is used per acre without profitable result, 

 as stated this session at the Institute of Civil Engineers of 

 London. 



The rice grain is husked or shelled in wooden mortars by 

 a concave vrooden pestle, a number of which are worked by 

 a wooden shaft, fitted with wooden pegs forming cams, the 

 shaft being driven by a waterwheel constructed entirely of 

 wood. Stone-husked rice is not liked, the wooden pestles 

 producing a high polish upon the kernel. 



Many species of roots are eaten ; the sweet potato 

 (dioscorea batatas) most largely, and is very delicious when 

 properly cooked. There are also two species of roots, one 

 grown on dry ground and one in the rice fields ; each of 

 these have leaves like the arrowhead or arum (calla); all 

 these three, as well as the ordinary potato, are called imo. 



The beautiful lotus (with its lovely, large, lily-like white 

 or pink blossoms, and large deep green leaves, floating upon 

 the water or waving in the wind) is considered a great 

 delicacy. The root is boiled or steamed, and has a slightly 

 sweet but most agTceable flavour. 



Of the root crops grown on dry ground the giant radish 

 (daicon) has the largest consumption, perhaps; it is eaten in 

 every way — boiled fresh, dried and boiled, &c. It is coarse 

 in flavour, in size it is about 24 inches long by 2 inches 

 diameter. Carrots and leeks are largely grown ; onions and 

 turnips sparsely. The whole country is irrigated where 

 possible ; the irrigation is simple, perfect, and inexpensive. 



The white mulberry is cultivated to a large extent, but 

 chiefly in small patches by farmers whose families raise 

 silkworms; a large amount of silk is produced from 

 bombyx mori by cottagers. The bombyx of the oak (the 

 yamamai) also produces a considerable quantity of coarse 

 silk ; in a wild state a silk is likewise obtained from the 

 bombyx (which feeds upon the ailanthus as well as the 

 oak), the cocoon of which is open like network. The silk 

 is chiefly reeled by hand, but one establishment in Yedo 

 reels by water-power. 



The woven silks have not been equal to those of foreign 



H 



