414 
primitive  methods  are  in  operation.  As  a rule  hand  tillage  is 
seen,  but  occasionally  bulls  and  small  horses  are  met  with.  A 
small  neat  milch  cow,  said  to  be  an  importation  from  Korea,  ap- 
pears to  fulfil  the  service  required.  In  spite  of  the  thousands  of 
successive  crops  which  have  been  taken  from  the  land,  no  sign  of 
deterioration  is  encountered.  The  highly  tilled  areas  surround 
the  cities  which  are  generally  situated  upon  large  rivers.  Silk, 
rice,  cotton  and  tea  are  the  staple  agricultural  industries  of  China, 
but  the  latter  is  more  and  more  losing  ground  in  consequence  of 
competition  with  Ceylon  tea.  Russia  is  the  chief  consumer  of 
the  Chinese  beverage.  Vast  tracts  of  valuable  agricultural  land 
are  yet  uncultivated  in  China  and  need  only  irrigation  and  fertiliza- 
tion to  be  as  productive  as  the  older  worked  lands.  Throughout 
the  country  the  impression  was  created  of  a vast  country  yet 
awaiting  development. 
' JAPAN. 
Passing  to  Japan  the  agricultural  conditions  were  found  to  be 
very  dififerent  from  those  recently  encountered.  The  region 
.south  of  Tokio  is  the  most  fully  cultivated  and  affords  a revela- 
tion to  the  traveler  of  the  possibilities  of  agricultural  develop- 
ment. It  may  truly  be  said  that  Japan  is  one  vast  garden  in 
the  highest  state  of  cultivation. 
To  rice  alone  over  three  million  acres  are  devoted,  cut  up  into 
farms  of  from  one  to  five  acres.  On  account  of  climatic  condi- 
tions only  one  crop  of  rice  and  another  of  wheat  or  barley  are 
grown  annually,  the  rice  being  harvested  in  the  fall  and  the 
rotation  crop  in  the  spring. 
EXPERIMENT  WORK  IN  JAPAN. 
In  contrast  to  China,  Japan  possesses  a splendidly  equipped 
Department  of  Agriculture.  The  main  imperial  experiment 
station  is  situated  at  Nishigahara,  near  Tokio,  where  a staff  of 
thirty  specialists  is  in  operation.  Many  of  the  employes  have 
received  foreign  education  and  the  research  work  is  of  a high 
order.  Each  of  the  forty  prefectures  of  the  Empire  has  a special 
agricultural  demonstration  station.  The  main  lines  of  investi- 
gation center  around  rice,  tea  and  tobacco.  The  latter  crop  is  a 
government  monopoly. 
JAPAN  AND  COTTON. 
Ten  years  ago  there  were  upwards  of  fifty  thousand  acres  of 
land  devoted  to  cotton  cultivation  in  Japan,  but  this  has  fallen 
off  to  less  than  one  thousand.  The  chief  reason  for  this  is  found 
in  an  unfavorable  climate,  but  it  is  significant  when  it  is  remem- 
bered how  the  supply  of  most  cotton  countries  is  diminishing. 
