Agriculture in Japan 



325 



swine having remained in the vicinity 

 of 200,000 for several years. 



Besides the encouragement and assist- 

 ance to agriculture furnished through 

 the agricultural schools and experi- 

 mental farms and laboratories, the gov- 

 ernment aids and promotes the develop- 

 ment of agricultural interests by means 

 of the hypothec banks. Recognizing 

 that many operations necessary to the 

 prosperity of agriculture require a heavy 

 investment which will not yield imme- 

 diate returns, and that farmers are 

 therefore not able to pay the high in- 

 terest or accept the conditions of short- 

 time commercial loans, the government 

 has established the hypothec banks for 

 the special accommodation of this class 

 of borrowers. These banks are under 

 the direct supervision of the finance 

 minister, subject to strict regulations, 

 and in return receive a certain degree 

 of support from the government. They 

 are permitted to make loans only for 

 the following purposes : ( 1 ) Reclama- 

 tion of land, irrigation, drainage, and 

 improvement of the fertility of the soil ; 

 (2) construction and improvement of 

 farm roads ; (3) settlement in newly 

 reclaimed places ; (4) purchase of seed, 

 young plants, manure, and other mate- 

 rials required in agriculture and indus- 

 try ; (5) purchase of implements and 

 machines, boats, wagons, or beasts for 

 use in farming and manufacture; (6) 

 construction or repair of buildings for 

 use in farming and manufacture; (7) 

 improvements in farming and manu- 

 facture not included in the foregoing 

 clauses; (8) rearrangement of farm 

 boundaries ; (9) undertakings by credit 

 guilds, purchase guilds, and produce 

 guilds of unlimited liability and organ- 

 ized under the industrial-guilds law. 



The credit guilds are organizations of 

 the farmers for the promotion of their 

 common interests, and in some respects 

 resemble the cooperative home-building 

 associations of the United States. When 

 organized in conformity with prescribed 



conditions, they are permitted to bor- 

 row money from the hypothec banks on 

 very favorable terms, and the members 

 may often obtain loans which the cir- 

 cumstances would prevent them from 

 securing except through the guild. 

 These guilds also undertake works for 

 the common benefit, especially such as 

 concern control of the course and vol- 

 ume of rivers, irrigation and drainage 

 systems, road building, reclamation of 

 uncultivated land, measures for protec- 

 tion against insect pests, and similar 

 enterprises. 



Stable manure and night soil have 

 been used as fertilizers by the farmers 

 of Japan from time immemorial, but in 

 recent years the supply of these has 

 been found wholly inadequate to the 

 needs of the land, and artificial manures 

 have come into general use. As the 

 farmers were liable to be imposed upon 

 by the venders of these, the govern- 

 ment in 1 go 1 enacted a law for control- 

 ling fertilizers. This law requires those 

 who manufacture or deal in fertilizers 

 to procure a license, to submit samples 

 of their goods to the proper officers for 

 inspection, and to guarantee the alleged 

 composition. The government has dis- 

 tributed 116 fertilizer inspectors among 

 different districts and has appointed 20 

 chemists at the state experimental farms 

 to take charge of the analysis of fertil- 

 izers. In 1902, 3,697 applications for 

 analysis of fertilizers were made to the 

 farms and 7,685 analytical tables were 

 prepared. Lecturers sent out from the 

 agricultural schools and laboratories 

 have explained to the farmers the pri- 

 mary essentials of fertilizers and the 

 different requirements of different crops, 

 so that the farmers have become gener- 

 ally intelligent on these matters. In 

 1901 the artificial fertilizer manufactur- 

 ing companies of Japan produced 62,400 

 tons; 151,000 tons of fish fertilizers- 

 were produced, and 83,967 tons of Chi- 

 nese bean cakes were imported for use 

 as fertilizers. Artificial fertilizers are 



