The star. (Reynoldsville, Pa.) 1892-1946, 1892-05-18

work by water, but nearly everything Il
on the smallest scale, and there are no
great rice-husking aud polishing ma
chimes such as you will find In India,
Burmah and the other great rice coun.
tries of the world.
A good rice field ought to produce
about forty bushels to the acre, and
some OF these Japanese fields produce
more. The country Of Japan produces
nearly hundred and fifty million
bushels Of rice a year, and their rice IL
the finest in the world. 1t may surprise
some TO know that there ere different
kinds of rice, but Japan alone has over
200 kinds, aud there Is as much differ
ence in the quality as thero Is in the
quality Of. meat and potatoes. The
Japanese understand the possibilities OF
irrigation. These rice beds are on diff
ferent levels, and during the time was
In Japan tie land made me think Of q
gigantic patchwork or one of natures
crazy-quilts. Each little spot of green
rice had flowers planted upon the little
walls OF earth which surrounded il, and
between the patches Of rice were gardens
OF beautiful flowers and many colored
crops Of other kinds. The water which
washed the roots of the green rice plants
sparkled like diamonds under the sun,
and the bare.legged farmers under their
big hats with their mahogany less shin.
ing out over the green seemed a natural
part of the scene.
A great deal of the irrigation of Japan
is done by human labor. The water is
raised from one level to another In buckets
or IN jars fastened to great wheels upon
which men stand and step up from one
rung of the wheel to the other with much
the same motion dog in a dog churn.
In the western part Of Japan great deal
OF the water is drawn from wells by means
of a long handled pole hung on a pivot,
by which man pumps the water out of
the ground and spreads it over the fields.
Labor in Japan is very cheap. You can
get good man in the interior from ten
to fifteen cents a day, and he will board
himself. Women can be gotten at still
lower wages, and the result Is that the
farming of Japan is far more intensive
than ours, and much greater percentage
fields produce two aud three crops year,
aud one crop is scarcely harvested before
the next is put in. This, however, is
not the case with rice. 1t seems to er.
haust the laud aud rice lands are usually
allowed to lie fallow in the winter.
During the past ten years Japan has
changed agriculturally as well as politi-
cally, and since the revolution it has be.
come different country. 1t has popu.
lation of about $4,000, 900, aud it is es.
timated that only ten per cent. of the
country is given up to farming; but this
area will be rapidly increased from now
on. There is big agricultural college
near Toxic, and agricultural schools have
been established in different parts OF the
Empire. Experiments are being made in
the introduction of stock, aud the whole
physical as well as the intellectual life of
the people is changing. The fact that
the japanese were Buddhsts has greatly
prejudiced them against the use OF meat.
In Buddhism, mau's soul after death Is
liable to go into the body of an animal,
aud the japanese have a prejudice
against serving up for breakfast slices
of their ancestors, and in the killing
of COW or sheep they might
be cutting oil the life of grandfather or
a great.grandmother. Buddhism is, I
think, declining. The contact with
Western civilization has caused the peo.
pie to give up many of their old preju-
dices, aud while they have largely be.
come infdels instead of Christians, after
leaving the religion of their fathers they
are ready to look at things in a practical
light, aud they will in the future proba.
bly, be meat eaters as we'll as rice eaters.