Lessons from Japa 



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22 1 



gives of the Vincennes on the 17th, this 

 line will go straight to the ' ' Hohes 

 Eisbedecktes Land. ' ' The direction tal- 

 lies exactly. Now, as to distance, the 

 western coast of the ' ' Hohes Eisbe- 

 decktes Land," the one which Dr von 

 Drygalski saw, is about 150 miles from 

 the position of Wilkes on the 17th, and 

 as this land must have some eastward 

 extension and an eastern coast, it is ob- 

 vious that this eastern side can not be 

 very far from where Wilkes placed Ter- 

 mination Land. Besides, this "eisbe- 

 decktes ' ' is also ' ' hohes ' ' laud; that is, 

 it is a high, mountainous land, and there- 

 fore it must be visible at a long distance. 

 $ir James Clarke Ross states that he 



sighted Victoria Land at over one hun- 

 dred miles distance by the land blink, 

 and Wilkes was certainly as near as 

 that to the eastern coast of Termination 

 Land. 



Thanks to the voyage of the Gauss, 

 therefore, the world now knows posi- 

 tively that Termination Land exists, per- 

 haps a few miles more to the west, but 

 otherwise just about where Admiral 

 Wilkes charted it; and, far from discred- 

 iting Admiral Wilkes, the observations 

 of Dr von Drygalski simply show once 

 more what a remarkably acute and ac- 

 curate geographical observer Admiral 

 Wilkes was. 



Edwin Swift Balch. 



LESSONS FROM JAPAN 



ONE of the assignments of David 

 G. Fairchild, agricultural ex- 

 plorer of the Department of 

 Agriculture, during 1903 was to visit 

 Japan with the third Barbour Lathrop 

 Expedition tosee if some agricultural les- 

 sons might not be learned from a people 

 who are such ingenious farmers that 

 their 45,000,000 people live almost en- 

 tirely on the productions of a cultivated 

 area about one-third the area of Illinois. 

 As a result of this visit, two interesting 

 reports by Mr Fairchild have been pub- 

 lished by the Department.* A number 

 of new plants of commercial value have 

 also been introduced, which promise a 

 material addition to the wealth of our 

 country and new crops of value for the 

 South — among them, mitsumata, a Jap- 

 anese paper plant, and new varieties of 

 bamboo. 



From the bark of trees and shrubs the 

 Japanese make scores of papers, which 

 are far ahead of ours. 



" Japanese Bamboos and their Introduction 

 into America," and "Three new Plant Intro- 

 ductions from Japan " by David G. Fairchild. 

 Hulls. 43 and 42, Bur. Plant Ind. Dep'tof Agric. 



The walls of the Japanese houses are 

 wooden frames covered with thin paper, 

 which keeps out the wind but lets in 

 the light, and when one compares these 

 paper-walled ' ' doll houses ' ' with the 

 gloomy bamboo cabins of the inhab- 

 itants of the island of Java or the small- 

 windowed huts of our forefathers, one 

 realizes that, without glass and in a 

 rainy climate, these ingenious people 

 have solved in a remarkable way the 

 problem of lighting their dwellings and, 

 at least in a measure, of keeping out 

 the cold. 



Their oiled papers are astonishingly 

 cheap and durable. As a cover for his 

 load of tea when a rainstorm overtakes 

 him, the Japanese farmer spreads over 

 it a tough, pliable cover of oiled paper, 

 which is almost as impervious as tar- 

 paulin and as light as gossamer. He 

 has doubtless carried this cover for 

 years, neatly packed away somewhere 

 about his cart. The " rikisha " coolies 

 in the large cities wear rain mantles of 

 this oiled paper, which cost less than 

 18 cents and last for a year or more 

 with constant use. 



