December, 1912.] 



479 



INFLUENCE OF GEOGRAPHICAL CONDITIONS UPON 

 JAPANESE AGRICULTURE. 



In a paper read recently before the Royal Geographical Society, 

 Miss E. C Semple discussed largely on the basis of personal observation 

 a number of interesting features in the influence of geographical condi- 

 tions upon Japanese agriculture, says Nature. Premising that islands, 

 with climates rendered equal by marine influence, and with the further 

 advantage of supplying " the double larder of land and sea," offer specially 

 favourable conditions for the early development of civilisation, she 

 showed that agriculture in such circumstances quickly becomes intensive 

 owing to the demand of an expanding population upon a cultivable area 

 which being insular is not capable of expansion. This condition is parti- 

 culary marked in Japan, because to its insular character are added other 

 contributing causes. Cultivation and settlement are rare above about 

 2,300 ft. of elevation. Forests and barren highlands above this height 

 clearly segregate the densely populated valley-settlements, which cling 

 closely to the rivers and streams where rice, the staple crop, may receive 

 the necessary irrigation. 



Moreover, it is not merely what may be termed the mechanical facili- 

 ties for this cultivation which limit its distribution. The generally 

 unfertile character of the soil has also to be taken into account. Miss 

 Semple quoted the present percentage of arable land to the total area of 

 Japan proper as only 14 - 37, and proceeded to show that so far as statis- 

 tical data are available, only Finland, Sweden, and Norway show a smaller 

 percentage, and these, unlike Japan, are sparsely populated countries. 

 The reclamation of the unfertile and ill- watered wastes and the diversific- 

 ation of crops are beyond the means of the Japanese small-holder, though 

 a few rich farmers or companies have undertaken such work. 



In dealing with the fertilisation of the soil, Miss Semple adverted to 

 " the parctical absence of stock-raising." It has been sought to attribute 

 this peculiar feature to the principles of the Buddhistic faith, but Miss 

 Semple prefers to find its reason in the scarcity of natural pasturage or 

 fodder-plants, She dealt at some length with the two classes of wet and 

 dry fields characteristic of Japanese agriculture, together with the geo- 

 graphical effect of relief upon their distribution ; on the other hand she 

 showed that the terrace system of cultivation usually associated with 

 mountainous tracts alone is not so in Japan, because the irrigation of the 

 low-land rice-fields also involves it. The raising of the silk- worm is found 

 to be practically confined to inland provinces and largely to upland farms, 

 where communications are bad, and the natural tendency has been to 

 develop a product of small bulk (and therefore easily conveyed) and high 

 proportional value, 



