The Findlay Jeffersonian. [volume] (Findlay, Hancock County, Ohio) 1870-1881, 1875-09-03

renorklng that You don't smoke, and
don't need il. Yet as often il is so hi. -
and showed under your nose again. If
you call for l drink of water, they bring
you red hot tea, or sometimes boiling
water. Japanese, when he stops to
rest, or gives a call, never drinks cold
water, and it sometimes requires consid-
/ derable of talk to make them understand
that yOu wish a drink of cold water.
You can get rice, eggs and fish, and
other unmentionable articles of Japan
ese food, if you desire them, but for my
part | prefer to be excused. Bread,
meat and milk, are not articles of Japan
ese food. They are not TO be had in the
interior. Your meals are always served
up in your room, brought to you on a
small table about fifteen inches square,
and about four inches high, chop-sticks
and all. But for my part prefer to eat
in the Western style with a knife, fork
and spoon. A waiting girl sits by Jap
anese style) to wait on you. She never
1
on you, but reaches out 'brue7 (tray)
to receive your dish, and returns it in
the same way. Some of these waiting
girls are quite beautiful ard attractive
IL is wonderful the amount of rice
japanese will eat in a day; some of them
will eat three quarts of boiled rice three
Aau fhas
lives depended Oh the rapidity with
which they eat; they bolt it down in ST
lence Ia japanese does not talk when he
eats and chews it afterwards. You are
charged only for what you eat, and
when you leave q neatly-written bill is
handed you with every little thing
charged down to the tenth of a cents
worth.
On your travel along the road, you
occasionally meet three or four men, ear
rying bundle OH each end of a pole,
some five feet long. They go on the
run all the time. These are the mail
carriers. On the principal thoroughfares
they travel day and night. During the
summer they are dressed in japanese full
costume O.; a simple lOin cloth. Though
there is law in Japan that the people
must wear clothes, yet the farmers, dur
ing the summer months, are, mostly des-
titnte of dress, unless a broad -brimmed
hat, and piece of a mat tied over the
back to protect it from the rays of the
sun, as they crawl around Oh all fours,
hoeing the rice with their hands, in four
or five inches of water, and a foot of
mud can be called dress The iinri-
kishi coolies, as soon as they are outside
OF town, dOff their dress, all but the
loin elotli, Till they come to the next
town. Besides the poorest excuse of a
rag, swung over the shoulders, or from
the waist, serves as q dress. The Sam
urai class all generally go pretty well
dressed, but their dress is not adapted
FOR work The Samurai class do not
perform manual labor.
FARMING.
The tillable lands of Japan are pretty
thoroughly cultivated, yet there is q large
portion of it not tillabls but better
system of cultivation would secure a
larger yield. Two other crops are gen
orally raised ia one year on the same |
ground This is only secured by thor |
oUgh SYSTEM of fertilizing the land The
fertilizer u always applied in a liquid |
form. i crop of wheat and crop of |
rice can be, and mostly are, raised on the |
same land in one year, As soon as the |
wheat Is harvested the rice is sewn, or
rather transplanted; fQr it is always |
grown on II small .ot till it is four or five |
inches high, and then transplanted. |
This Is the busy season for the farmers.
1t is also tlie commencement of the wet |
season, which maSes it difficult to prop |
erly harvest aud take care of the wheat
As soon as the wheat is cut it is pounded |
of, separated from the chaff, and put |
away. The consequence is that it must |
afterwards he spread out on mats to dry. |
wheat, Their wheat will never find
Ready foreign market till they learn bet
ter how to harvest and take care of it.
They reap their wheat with short sick |
le, with no teeth, cutting the grain off |
just above the ground. One person will |
reap about three or four dozen of Ogdi- |
nary sized sheayes per day. In many |
of the lager and better cultivated val |
leYs, that part of the land may be eulti-
vated in wheat, a portion of it is raised /
above the rest. This is done by remov-
ing the surface soil from two or more
haIaki, and then sinking one hataki |
come eighteen inches or two feet, and |
putting this subSol on another to raise |
it, and then replacing the surface soil on |
each. They can thus cultivate part of |
the ground in wheat This requires a |
great deal of labor, but labor is compar- |
ativeIy cheap. Yet a foreigner is com
PEELED to wonder at the vast amount of |
labor that has been bestowed upon the |
land to adapt it to the present system of |
cultivation. Women do a good part of |
the farming work, as, indeed, they do
Of all the hard drudge work If you meet
IA man and a woman travelling if child
or a bundle is to be carried, the woman
has it to do. Occasionally you will see
the liege lord being carried in kOngo
(baskety while tL- woman trudges along
Oh foot.
In all my travels i'll Japan have been
very eivilly treated. 1 have found no
difficulty in securing lodging place at
some hotel, though many foreigners
complain bitterly OF such things. Where
was the first foreigner who had been
along the road, the curiosity of the peo-
pie to see me WAS rather remarkable.
When | would stop to rest they would
crowd around Inc so as to cut off all ac-
cess Of fresh air; and they would follow
me in crowds TO the end Of the town,
for towns in Japan have ends % and
along the road they would flock from the
fields to see me pass. While travelling,
had no more occasion for anxiety as to
where or how ! should pass the night
than | shoald have had had been trav-