1863.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
239 
The amount of manure on hand determines the 
breadth of land which the Japanese farmer will 
sow. The peculiarity of Japanese husbandry 
is that no animals are kept. Human excre¬ 
ment forms the principal manure. The Japan¬ 
ese farmer does not allow the crop to be eaten 
by cattle and then return to the soil the manure 
from them, but he eats the crop himself, with 
the help of his family, and returns the manure 
directly to the soil. The religion of the people^ 
prevents their eating any animal food except 
fish; and they eat the mollusks or “ shell-fish ” 
in great quantities, and the manure from them 
is the only fertilizing material returned to 
the land that does not come off of it. On the 
farm, human excrement is returned to the land 
from which the food came, and the cities regu¬ 
larly return to the country loads of human ma¬ 
nure in exchange for the food which they re¬ 
ceive. Throughout the country the greatest 
care is exercised in preserving the night soil. 
The cabinet or privy, is an essential part of the 
houses of the poorest as well as of the wealthy. 
A bucket or earthen vessel is placed where it 
will receive the deposit and is provided with 
projecting ears into which a pole can be insert¬ 
ed for the purpose of carrying the vessel. At 
the towns and cities “ thousands of boats may 
be seen early each morning laden with high 
heaps of buckets full of the precious stuff, which 
they carry from the canals in the cities to the 
country. These boats come and go with the 
regularity of the post; it must be admitted, 
however, that it is a species of martyrdom to be 
the conductor of a mail boat of this kind. In 
the evening long strings of coolies are met with 
on the road, who, having in the morning carried 
the produce of the country to the town, are re¬ 
turning home, each with two buckets of ma¬ 
nure, not in a solid or concentrated form, but 
fresh from the privies. Caravans of pack- 
horses, which often have brought manufactured 
articles (silks, oil, lacquered goods, etc.,) a dis¬ 
tance of 200 to 300 miles from the interior to 
the capita], are sent home again freighted with 
baskets or buckets of manure; in such cases, 
however, care is taken to select solid excre¬ 
ments.” For the way in which the manure is 
treated, we can not do better than to quote the 
language of this interesting report. 
“ The excrements are diluted with water, no 
other addition of any kind being made to them , and 
stirred until the entire mass is worked into a 
most intimately intermixed fine pap. In rainy 
weather, the vessel is covered with a movable 
roof to shield it from the rain; in dry weather 
this is removed, to allow' the action of the sun 
and wind. The solid ingredients of the pap 
gradually subside, and fermentation sets in ; the 
water evaporates. By this time the vessel in 
the privy is again ready for emptying. A fresh 
quantity of water is added, the whole mass is 
again stirred and most intimately mixed togeth¬ 
er, in short, treated exactly like the first empty¬ 
ing. The same process is repeated, until the 
cask or pan is full. After the last supply of ex¬ 
crements, and thorough mixing, the mass is left, 
according to the state of the weather, for two 
or three weeks longer, or until it is required for 
use; but under no circumstance is the manure ewer 
employed in the fresh state. This entire course of 
proceeding clearly shows that the Japanese are no 
partisans of the nitrogen theory , and that they only 
care for the solid parts of the dung. They leave 
the ammonia exposed to decomposition by the 
action of the sun, and its volatilization by the 
wind, but take the greatest care to shield the 
solid ingredients from being wasted or swept 
away by rain, &c. As the peasant, however, 
pays his rent to his landlord, not in cash, but in 
a certain stipulated percentage of the produce 
of his fields, he argues quite logically that the 
supply of manure from his privy must necessa¬ 
rily be insufficient to prevent the gradual exhaus¬ 
tion of the soil of his farm, notwithstanding 
the marvellous richness of the latter, and in 
spite of the additional supply of manuring mat¬ 
ter derived from the water of the brook or 
canal from which he takes his material for irri¬ 
gation. He places, therefore, wherever his field 
is bordered by public roads, footpaths, &c., 
casks or pots buried jn the ground nearly to the 
rim, urgently requesting the traveling public to 
make use of the same. To show how univer¬ 
sally the economical value of manure is felt and 
appreciated in all classes of society in Japan, 
from the highest to the lowest, I need simply 
state the fact that, in all my wanderings through 
the country, even in the most remote valleys, 
and in the homesteads and cottages of the very 
poorest of the peasantry, I never could discov¬ 
er, even in the most secret and secluded corners, 
the least trace of human excrements. How 
very different with us, in Germany, (and in 
America.— Ed.) w T here it may be seen lying 
about in every direction, even close to the pri¬ 
vies ! I need not mention that the manure thus 
left by benevolent travelers is treated exactly 
in the same way as the family manure. 
The Japanese farmer prepares also compost. 
As he keeps no cattle to turn his straw, etc., into 
manure, he is forced to incorporate this part of 
his produce with the soil without ‘ animaliza- 
tion.’ The method pursued to effect this ob¬ 
ject consists simply in the concentration of the 
materials. Chaff, chopped straw, liorse-dung, 
excrement gathered in the highways, tops and 
leaves of turnips, peelings of yams and sweet 
potatoes, and all the offal of the farm, are care¬ 
fully mixed with a little mold, shoveled up in 
small pyramidal heaps, moistened and covered 
with a straw thatch. I often saw also in this 
compost, heaps of shells of mussels and snails, 
with which most of the .rivulets and brooks 
abound, and ivhich, in all parts close to the 
seashore, may be obtained in any quantities. 
The compost heaps are occasionally moistened 
and turned with the shovel, and thus the pro¬ 
cess of decomposition proceeds rapidly, under 
the powerful action of the sun. I have also 
often seen the shorter process of reduction by 
fire resorted to when there was plenty of straw, 
or where the manure was required for use be¬ 
fore it could be got ready for use by the slow¬ 
er fermentation process.” 
It will be seen, from the foregoing that the 
Japanese farmer applies his njanure only as a 
top-dressing and in the liquid form. The ma¬ 
nure being fully fermented, is brought into im¬ 
mediate contact with the seed, not only without 
injury, but with decided benefit to its early 
growth. Another feature which characterizes 
their culture is the manuring with every crop. 
Each sowing receives the necessary amount of 
manure, and a full return is expected from the 
immediate crop without reference to the next 
harvest. We have introduced this subject to 
show that for thousands of years, a successful 
system of agriculture has been carried on main¬ 
ly by the aid of human excrement, in the hope 
of inducing our readers to add this element of 
fertility to their farms. There exists a sort of 
prejudice against the use of night soil as a ma¬ 
nure. A general knowledge of chemistry would 
dissipate this and other notions. Human excre¬ 
ment, as well as that of animals, contains 
elements which are needed for the growth of the 
plant. It matters nothing from what source these 
are obtained, the wondrous processes going on 
within the plant will convert these elements into 
food. Every thoughtful person will see that it 
is man’s duty, when he has taken the products 
of the soil for food, to return to it those portions 
which are not needed in his own system, but 
■which are, according to the operations of na¬ 
ture, voided in such a state as to demand their 
removal, and which form valuable plant food. 
-- * < - *-•» - 
Statistics of the Tobacco Crop. 
The following figures published in the Massa¬ 
chusetts Agricultural Report for 1862, show the 
immense commercial importance of this crop. 
The product in the United (and seceding) 
States and Territories, in 1849, was 199,752,655 
pounds. In the year 1859 it reached the aston¬ 
ishing amount of 420,390,771 pounds, being a 
gain of 220,638,116 pounds in ten years. The 
crop grown in 1859, at the low figure of ten 
cents per pound, wmuld amount to $42,039,077. 
Notwithstanding the great amount grown here, 
we find that large quantities are imported 
every year. Not being able to get the amount 
imported in 1859, we take that of 1858. In that 
year there was imported into this countiy, 
7,499,566 pounds, at a cost of $1,255,831. Also 
218,729,000 cigars, at a cost of $4,123,208, and 
snuff, with other manufactures of tobacco, to 
the amount of $589,439. Of the domestic to¬ 
bacco spoken of, there were exported 127,670 
hogsheads, 4,841 cases and 12,640 bales, valued 
at $17,009,767, and of the manufactured domes¬ 
tic tobacco exported, there were 11,210,574 
pounds, valued at $2,410,224. 
By the census of 1840, all the tobacco grown 
in Massachusetts in 1839, amounted to only 64,- 
955 pounds. In 1849 the amount was 138,246 
pounds, all grown in four counties, viz.: Frank¬ 
lin, 14,590 pounds; Hampden, 68,156 pounds; 
Hampshire, 55,300 pounds; Middlesex, 200 
pounds. In 1859, Massachusetts produced 
3,223,198 pounds, being an increase of 3,084,952, 
the last ten years, and in twenty years 3,158,243 
pounds. It is estimated that Massachusetts has 
produced this year (1862,) one-third more than 
1859, which would make the amount 4,297,597 
pounds. At fifteen cents per pound, (which is 
a low estimate for this year,) this crop would 
come to $644,639.55. Several of the northern 
States present a very large increase. Ohio 
raised in 1859, over twenty-five and one-half 
million pounds. New-York increased her pro¬ 
duct the last ten years, from 83,189 pounds to 
5,764,582 pounds. Connecticut increased from 
1,267,624 to 6,000,133 pounds. In 1849 the loy¬ 
al States produced 230,369,341 pounds, and the 
seceding States produced 199,021,430 pounds. 
The consumption of this article, in various 
forms, doubtless keeps pace with the production. 
Sweet Potato Vines for Cattle. 
“Experience” writes from Monmouth Co., 
N. J., as follows: “I have used sweet potato 
vines for cattle, for the past five seasons with 
admirable success. If care is taken to rid the 
vines of the dirt which generally adheres to 
them when pulled, cattle will eat them as readi¬ 
ly as they will the best of pasture. In fact I 
have seen cattle, when vines were thrown into 
their field, leave first rate pasture and come 
bellowing for a feast. I do not hesitate to say 
that sweet potato vines can be used to great ad¬ 
vantage for both hogs and cattle." 
