The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1886-04-08
A HORSE PASTURE
m JAPAN OCCUPIED BY A HUNDRED
THOUSAND HORSES.
A Tract Seventy Miles Long and Fifty
Miles Wide, Fenced in by an En-
bankment Sixteen Feet in
Height.


[Dr H. Lasham in Sacramento Record Union.l
The imperial horse pasturing establish
ment in Japan was founded by the CONT
mental conquerers of the island where it is
situated more than thousand years ago
The country conquered embraced the
peninsula between the bay of Yeddo and
the Pacific ocean. The country is table
land, with an altitude above the water of
800 feet 1t is seventy miles long and
fifty miles wide. 1t is of irregular shape,
with serrated borders. conforming to the
irregularities of the bay and ocean. 1t has
thousands of beautiful groves of oaks and
evergreens, and the country presents
much the appearance of the oak openings
of Michigan and Kentucky. 1t is covered
with clover, fescue and rye grasses 1t
was determined by the government to re-
serve all this region as pasture in which
to breed horses for the imperial armies
It could have been easily fenced from the
groves of timber, but that would have left
il exposed to the attacks of the hostile
Amos who were still only a hundred or
two miles further north.
An edict was issued and thousands of
villagers were transported thither from
all parts of the empire. To these set
tiers the land along the streams, near the
borders of the table land, was given, on
vast force was put to work to con-
struct an immense embankment around
this pasture 1t was sixteen feet high
and sixteen feet at the base In order TO
leave out the rice land along the streams
and to conform also TO the serrated edges
of the table lands, it required many curves
and windings or this reason it was
fully twice as long as would have been re
quired if it could have been perfect
circle or square. AS it was built it was
500 miles in length 1t was constructed
entirely by manual labor without the aid
of plOws, scrapers or carts. The earth
was shoveled into hemp sacks or mats,
and was then carried swinging on pole.
by two men up on to the embankment
This was the work of years, but where
labor has little value and the word of the
ruler is absolute, anything can be done
After this fortified fence was finished,
the work of subdividing it into fields was
commenced. The subdivision enbank-
ments were twelve feet high and twelve
feet at the base. The whole area
was surveyed into circles In the
center the corral was located From
the corral triangular fields were sur
veyed; each corral and the surrounding
fields were in the form of a wheel the
corral in the place of the hub. the fields
occupying the spaces between the spokes
and the subdivision embankments repre-
senting the spokes. The corrals were
formed by building embankments thirty
and even forty feet high. The fields
varied in area from 200 to !, 800 acres.
Each corral division had its official in
charge, and over all was high imperial
officer The aggregate length of these
subdivision entertainments was more than
Q. 600 meters. The tycoon who ordered
all this labor did not live to see its COM
pletion, but his son and successor did.
rrYr - Il Gry
for occupation, officers were sent to every
province in the empire and the best
mares and horses were bought Ambas-
sailors were sent to China, Corea, and
Manchuria, and the best equine blood of
those countries was purchased. In thirty
or forty wears after the pasture was occu-
pied there were go, 900 horses pasturing
there. At later time it is said that the
number reached was 100, 600. Some
wears since the MEriter was invited to Yieit
E1IIs great pasture and WITNESS the annual
horse gathering. The day after our ar
rival was the first day of the annual
gathering Early in the morning all
the roads and paths leading TO the divis-
ion, where the driving in was to com
mence, were filled with people from the
surrounding country. This yearly round
I'D is a great occasion, and people go 100
miles to see it. Men, women and children
cover the entertainments in their gay holi-
day attire A swarm of fOotmen is hired
to drive the half wild horses out of the
100 or 200 of horsemen rush them along
the ever-narrowing field into the corral.
1t is an exciting scene as the hundreds of
horses run away in terror, followed by
the crowds of mounted men.
Arriving at the corral we found an
army Of people camped around it There
was an improvised city of bamboo houses,
inn
houses, lodging houses, theatres, shops
for the sale of every conceivable article,
troupes of acrobats, jugglers. fortune
tellers, dancing and singing girls, and
crowds of country people in the gayest
dresses. On the corral embankments
were seats for the officials under the wide
spreading branches of gigantic oaks that
had been planted there hundreds of years
before.
After refreshments, which consisted of
wine made from rice. fish, eggs
chicken, and vegetables, the catching
classifying, and branding commenced.
The horses are all caught with lassO,
which is not thrown, as with us, but is
attached to the end of a long bamboo
pole 1t is handled very skillfully. Many
were the tumbles which the horse catch
ers got in their struggles with the thor
oughly frightened animals. These were
greeted with shouts of laughter from the
crowds on the embankment. All the
mares are branded and turned back into
the pasture The best horses are selected
for the cavalry, and the others are sold
at auction, on long time, to the farmers,
who come from all parts of the country
to buy.
The forenoon was devoted to driving
in, catching, and branding. and the after
Moons to horse-racing. These latter are
kept up till night and are full of excite.
ment The tracks are straight ones, and
the distances are from 400 yards TO a mile
and half. Most races are catch weights.
but if not they are scale-weights, regard
less of age a fourteen hand horse will
carry about 100 pounds Each corral di-
vision will back its favorite, and the bet
ting is sometimes very spirited. The rid
ing at that time was not of high order,
being more like that among our wild In
dian tribes, as seen some years since by
the writer.
California Vampire Bat.
The Los Angeles Herald describes a
specimen of the vampire family recently
caught there: This huge specimen
70 firOn #