THE ECONOMIC PLANTS OF JAPAN. 



79 



several varieties as we find in different kinds of potatoes ; 

 some are dry and mealy, others pasty and watery. They 

 also differ much in earliness, color, size and mode of 

 growth, and some are suited to upland, others to 

 swamps. As a rule, the quality is best when they are 

 grown on dry, sandy soil, but the yield is heaviest in 

 moist soils. 



They compare very favorably with other root crops 

 in nutritive qualities, as they contain only about 80 per 

 cent, of water, and of the dry matter one and one-half 

 to two per cent, is nitro- 

 gen ; the rest is starch 

 and other non-nitrogen- 

 ous substances. 



CONOPHALLUS KON- 



jAK, Schott. {Arum 

 Dracuncidus, Thunb.; 

 Amorphophallus Riv- 

 ieri, Durieu.,var. JCon- 

 Jak, Engler ; A. palma- 

 forniis. Riviere); Jap., 

 Konniyaku. This is 

 another cultivated 

 plant of the family 

 Araceae.of much impor- 

 tance in Japan. The 

 root forms a fleshy, 

 somewhat flattened 

 corm, often of very 

 large size, which, after 

 being cleaned, sliced 

 and dried in the sun, 

 is pulverized in stamp- 

 mills, and the flour thus 

 obtained is used for 

 food. The illustration 

 on this page represents 

 the corm, leaf and 

 flower of the Konniyaku 

 plant. Thetwoformer 

 are much reduced ; the 

 flower is nearly natural 

 size. 



The plant requires a 

 rich, moist soil, which 

 must, however, be free 

 from stagnant water. 

 The plant is propagat- 

 ed by the young corms 



which form on the side of the old one. The crop is 

 dug in the fall before frost in northern regions; but 

 wherever the frost is not severe enough to injure the 

 corm, the roots may remain during the second and 

 even during the third year undisturbed, the old corms 

 continuing to grow in size until when dug in the fall 

 of the third year they are often a foot in diameter. 

 When thus left over, the crop is liberally manured each 

 spring when growth starts ; 600 bushels per acre is an 

 average yield for a three years' crop. Once out of the 



ground the corms do not keep well ; all but those intend- 

 ed for seed are therefore sliced and dried soon after dig- 

 ging and the pieces stamped into powder, in which condi- 

 tion it will keep for an indefinite period withoutdeteriora- 

 tion. I may add a word in description of the konniyaku 

 mill, which in fact is only the ordinary stamp-mill of 

 the country, and is used for pulverizing many other sub- 

 stances. Konniyaku was grown somewhat largely in 

 Oyamada, and this mill was kept at work during the 

 greater portion of the year. 



CONOPHALLUS KONJAK KoNNIY/ 



Much reduced. 



Water is the universal and wellnigh the only source 

 of power. Running streams are abundant, and the 

 mountainous nature of the country gives them plenty of 

 head. With the least possible amount of intermediate 

 gearing the wheel turns a massive shaft, raised about 

 two feet from the floor and running the whole length of 

 the building. On one side of this shaft is a row of huge 

 wooden mortars, made by sinking blocks of hard wood 

 in the earth and scooping out the upper end. Each of 

 these bowls is provided with an equally huge pestle con- 



