Chap. XYII. 
NATURAL PRODUCTIONS. 
CHAPTER XYII. 
Other productions of Japan — Silk, tea, &c. — Silk country — Value 
of silk — Tea districts — Curious statements on tea cultivation — 
Value of exports from Kanagawa in 1860-61 — Means of increasing 
the supplies of silk and tea — Prospects on the opening of the new 
ports — Japanese objections to the opening — The Tycoon’s letter to 
the Queen — Ministers’ letter to Mr. Alcock — Their recommenda- 
tions considered — Danger of opening Yedo at present — Remarks 
on the other ports — Trade probably overrated — Japanese mer- 
chants compared with Chinese — Prejudices against traders in 
Japan — Foreign officials and these prejudices — War with Japan 
not improbable. 
IN addition to the agricultural productions which 
I have just described, there are many other articles 
in the country “pleasant to the sight and good 
for food,” which are worthy of attention now that 
the Japanese have entered into the great family 
of nations. Perhaps no country in the world is 
more independent of other countries than Japan. 
She has, within herself, enough to supply all the 
wants and luxuries of life. The productions of 
the tropics, as well as those of temperate regions, 
are found in her fields and gathered into her 
barns. Wherever there are mountain ranges, 
coal, lead, iron, and copper are found, and not 
unfrequently the precious metals. Tea, silk, 
cotton, vegetable wax, and oils are produced in 
abundance all over the country. Ginseng and 
