466 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. VII., No. 172 



the existing unfavorable conditions, they do not 

 admit of being transported. In the regions 

 remote from the coast and the more thickly 

 settled districts, various substances, such as wood- 

 ashes, the residue from grapes, cottonseed, beans, 

 etc., are used for fertilizing- material ; but the ex- 

 tent to which they can be employed is very limited, 

 and for this reason some better source of compost- 

 material is highly desirable for the further develop- 

 ment of inland agriculture. The necessity of the 

 introduction of stock-raising has been recognized 

 in Japan, although its true value has hitherto not 

 been rightly appreciated. 



About eighteen years ago, Japan suddenly ex- 

 changed its mediaeval condition for one very 

 different ; and this must be taken into considera- 

 tion in judging of the present state of affairs in 

 that country, since, under such circumstances, one 

 cannot wonder that errors have been committed, 

 but, rather, that the results already reached have 

 been so remarkable. Already a network of tele- 

 graph-wires covers the entire land, and railroads 

 are increasing from year to year ; and in the laws 

 of the country undoubted improvements have 

 been brought about. In the civilized countries of 

 Europe the development of the modern condition 

 from the mediaeval one was gradual ; but in Japan 

 this development has been not only more rapid, 

 but also in many respects peculiar. Not only has 

 it made use of many counsellors and teachers 

 from other countries, but it has sent out a very 

 considerable number of its own students to other 

 lands, who have brought back many of the modern 

 inventions and discoveries of civilized life. Such 

 a process of development has been in many re- 

 spects of great advantage to Japan, although not 

 wholly without its elements of danger. They can 

 avail themselves of the multitudinous results of 

 civilization which have been slowly and labori- 

 ously acquired in European states in the many 

 centuries, and at the same time avoid the many 

 errors taught by painful experience, though it 

 must be borne in mind that the old mediaeval con- 

 ditions are not yet entirely done away with. 



These conditions must be taken into account in 

 treating of the development of live-stock indus- 

 tries in Japan. In the civilized nations of Europe, 

 it is well known, that, until recently, live-stock 

 was looked upon as a necessary evil, useful only 

 as machines for the production of fertilizing- 

 material. Circumstances were deemed fortunate 

 when the income derived from the stock was 

 sufficient to pay expenses, and thus furnish 

 manure free of cost. In England scarcely a 

 hundred years have elapsed since stock-rai.sing has 

 attained an independent position as a profitable 

 industry, and in Germany its importance was not 



appreciated till a much later period. While in 

 many other agricultural and technical matters 

 Japan's progress has been more rapid than was the 

 case in Europe, the difficulties which stock-raising 

 encounter are greater, rather than less, than were 

 the European ones in past centuries. 



In the live-stock industries of Japan the horse 

 and the ox are the only animals which have at- 

 tained any degree of importance. Sheep do not 

 thrive in the moist climate, and attempts have 

 shown the uselessness of endeavoring to introduce 

 this branch of stock-raising. But little attention 

 is paid to hog-raising, although circumstances 

 would seem to indicate its profitableness, and the 

 opportuneness of its inception on a more extended 

 scale. 



The number of cattle in Japan is not only ab- 

 solutely, but also relatively in proportion to the 

 population, very small. In 1879 there were but 

 4.1 horses and 2.9 oxen or cows to every hundred 

 inhabitants. — a number, for the latter, remarkably 

 small. In the same year there was less than one 

 head of cattle slaughtered for every thousand in- 

 habitants for food, the consumption varying in 

 the different provinces from five and a half per 

 thousand to less than one per hundred thousand. 

 Even in the large province of Musashi, in which 

 the large flesh-consuming cities of Tokio and 

 Yokohama lie, the consumption amounted to only 

 3.1 per thousand inhabitants. 



It has been often asserted that the consumption 

 of flesh in Japan is steadily increasing. Of the 

 1,075,520 head of cattle in Japan in 1877, 33,959 

 were slaughtered ; in 1882 there were 1.159,750, of 

 which 36,288 were slaughtered, — in both cases 

 bearing the same percentage, 3.1, to the entire 

 number. This percentage is very small, and it is 

 seen that a large proportion of the stock must live 

 to be very old, and die natural deaths. 



Milk and butter, as will be understood, are un- 

 salable in the interior, and non-transportable, and 

 cheese and condensed-milk manufacturing requires 

 more capital than is disposable in Japan. Further, 

 the entire population has for butter and cheese a 

 decided dislike, which is not wholly overcome evei 

 by those who have become accustomed to Eu- 

 ropean diet. 



Attempts have been made to improve the indus- 

 try by the importation of foreign cattle : but tins 

 has been done without a proper study of the 

 adaptability of different breeds to the peculiar 

 climate and mountainous topography of the coun- 

 try, and the result has not been wholly satisfactory. 

 Instead of introducing stock from the highlands 

 of Scotland, Wales, or, better, from the mountain 

 valleys of South Germany and Switzerland, Short- 

 horn, Devon, and Hereford stock has been im- 



