Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1889-03-30
JAPANESE FARMING.
HIGH RATE OF TAXATION AND
THOROUGH METHODS.
The Fertilizers Used-Worlxs of Irri-
gation-E xamples in Agriculture
Worthy of Imitation.

japanese farms has Its natural counterpart
on the practical side. Land is dear an,
taxes are high. The land tax was for
merly three per cent, but / believe is nov
two and half. Then there are specif
taxes on special crops, such as tea, rice anc
silk. Nationally, therefore, cultivation i
thorough. Not a square inch of soil i
wasted, and the land is kept up to higl
degree Of fertility. In passing the farm
houses, with their thick walls of mue
plastered upon network of bamboo, and
their enormously heavy matched roofs
sometimes nearly yard in thickness, thu
tourist is struck by the absence of stables
cattle and horses. In some regions thes,
are more numerous than in that through
viii oh we iourneyed, but their use is bv nc
means common. There are probably pig.
in Japan, but we did not happen to see
them. Domestic fowls are noticed here
and there, often dwelling in social famil
iarity in the family apartments, but they
are far from universal. Naturally, then
the thrifty Japs are put to their trumps
for fertilizers; yet they use them pro.
fusely.
FERTILIZERS AND FERTILIZING.
Everything available is called into re.
QUESTIONING rubbish, weeds, trimmings
from forests and groves nothing that has
a particle of fertilizing vigor in it is
neglected. OF course, in such circum-
stances much is made of human manure.
Not an atom, fluid or solid, is wasted. In
every Japanese dwelling which we entered
were various retiring rooms, usually as neat
as wax and as sweet as confectioner's
premises, where arrangements were made
for complete saving in portable quantities
In some of the large hotels, where Eu-
ropean apparatus had found place, there
was European waste and uncleanliness.
In primitive Japan nothing of the sort fell
under our observation, although in the
wilder districts it exists to some extent.
Conveniently near all places of public
resort, such as tea-houses or bazaars, were
the little accommodations, practically
equipped for frequent emptying, easy of
access. Even the wayfaring tramp was
provided for, and he scrupulously awaited
himself of his privileges. An English
man long resident in the country informed
me that many Japanese market-gardeners
were so reckless in the use of this material
that he never used garden vegetables ma
turing above ground, like cabbage, spinach
and the like, unless he personally knew
and approved the locality of their growth.
Well, there is such thing as the abuse of
the greatest blessings, but this system of
manuring as practiced in Japan and China
has fully demonstrated its value in keep
ing land in the highest state of fertility
for centuries. Doubtless in the course of
time agriculture the world over will be
driven to its adoption, as well for financial
as sanitary considerations.
IRRIGATION.
We notice as we go higher up the broad
valley which we have been following, that
the burrows in the grain fields became
deeper and deeper. They still keep up
their precision and nicely of form, but
they have deepened from their original
three to six inches to foot or more. We
pass few sickly looking tobacco plants,
forming border hedge to barley field.
We take a cross-cut over a ridge into
another valley. On the ridge we find the
tea region. The fields near the ridge are
broken up into gigantic burrows, in some
cases five or six feet deep. 1t is not quite
proper to'call them burrows here, although
they are only the development of the fur
row system. They are really great mounds
with cross burrows or bitches between
built up of squared clods of puddled soil in
many cases. On these grow the same old
crops which we have been watching, with
here and there few tea plants mixed in
Cucumber and melon vines also appear.
At this point the furrow system be-
comes clearly ineligible to us. Its OBJ
ject is to arrest, corral and store up every
drop of rain. The burrows are all practi-
cally irrigating bitches, beginning shallow
at the spots most remote from the noun
tain torrents, and steadily increasing in
dimensions till they assume the mound
form which has just been described. /
really should have guessed this all out
sooner, but some how | failed to do so.
When the rains do come in this region,
floods in the mountains are terrific, and
the carefully furrowed, or l might better
say diked, fields serve a double purpose.
They not only compel the water to flow
slowly and settle into the soil, but they
aid in impeding torrents which would
otherwise sweep the farm lands away
with the bosom of destruction. 1t was
only about ten years ago that the valley
which we have traversed was utterly de.
vastated by the overflow of the great riv.
ers, which are but dry sand beds in the
protracted seasons of drought. The water
was some FIVE feet on the level in the
great city of Osaka, during several days o.
that disastrous food.
We found this out later. but we have
guessed it from the character of the road
over which we have driven. For a great
portion of the way across the plain we
were travelling over huge bikes. We went
for several miles on one dixie over high.
way eighteen feet wide, while the level Of
the roadbed was twenty-five feet or SC
above the surrounding land. We crossed
over and through number of gigantic
bitches or sluiceways. They were dry a,
the time, and where the road passed
through them the heavy drop-gates were
removed. In two cases we made abrupt
descents from the beds of these bitches
through massive granite walls, into the
heart of little villages over twenty feet
below the ditch level. These enormou.
works of the Government must have en-
tailed vast expenditures, but no doubt they
are a profitable speculation in the Ions
run, inasmuch as the paternal japanese
Government RENTS land and crop taxes II
periods of devastation from floods.
WORTHY OF IMITATION.
So far as we had view of Japanes,
farms, then, they are practically worked
on the irrigation system. This is perhap
the crowning feature of the methods o
culture which have preserved the countr,
for so many ages in a magnificent condi
ton of fertility. 1t is feature which
might we'll attract the attention and ex
pertinent of American farmers. In Cali
fornia it is a necessity. "No irrigation
desert" is the law in that region. Blu
even IN the North it might be introduces
some features of it, at least-with advan
tage. During many summers spent in thu
hilly portions of New England, have
seen the hay and other crops suffer AM
even 60 almost to ruin during long period
of drought. Yet during these seasons ofca
lamity there we're brooks trickling away L
waste on very many OF the suffering farms
In the older countries they manage thing
better than this. The summer of ISIS
was called a dry one in Switzerland, TO