The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1892-03-31
THE TINY FARMS OF JAPAN.
Every Acre Made to Produce oil 1t Posi-
bly, Can.
NeW York Tribune.

TOXIC, JAPAN, January 26.-The eco
comic problem of how to relieve the
pressure of an increasing population up
on limited means of subsistence has not
yet been solved in Japan. A temporary,
if not permanent relief, is promised in
the attempt of the Government to en-
courage emigration to foreign countries.
Already thousands have settled in the
Hawaiian and other islands of the Pa.
cifc. Japan is so cut up by mountain
ranges aud almost impassable cliffs that
only about one-eighth of the whole area
is suitable for cultivation. The country
is so small and the population 30 great
that the wonder is that the people have
managed to exist at all. But to the fact
that they have lived and thrived their
enormous numbers bear testimony. The
high cultivation of the land, the vegeta-
rian diet of the people, together with the
remarkable staying power" of the race,
have made the matter of existence COM
paratively easy in ages past. But, not
withstanding the power of resistance
which is characteristic of the people,
there is limit to their endurance. The
rapid increase of the population, togeih-
er with the drain upon the resources of
the country, would surely in few years
have resulted in nothing less than con.
test with scarcity, if not an actual fight
against famine. But for the present, at
least, the calamity has been averted by
the emigration of thousands OF coolies,
which has proven the best thing, not on
Iy for Japan and the emigrants them
selves, but for the new countries. The
decrease of population in the Pacific
Islands makes it impossible to obtain ne.
cessary and efficient labor at home, and
the recruiting of the Industrial forces by
the energetic and skilled Japanese agri-
cultural laborers is just what is needed.
Large companies are emigrating nearly
every month under contract to remain
from three to FIVE years. Owing to the
demand for labor and the efficiency of the
Japanese, the terms of the contract are
particularly easy. The expenses of the
voyage both ways are generally paid, and
the emigraut has the privilege of return
ing at the end of the first year, if dissat
isfed. He receives better wages, and is
enabled to live in greater comfort than
at home. Other countries have respond
ed to Japan, and just how great the exc
dus will become within the next few years
may depend largely upon the induce
ments offered.
To an outsider it would seem expedi-
ent for the Government to bring the is
land of Yeso under cultivation. The
great drawback is the climate, which is
much colder than that of the rest of the
Empire. japanese dwellings are not
built to withstand severe cold, and the
natives have made no attempt to make a
change in the old form Of dwelling
structures.
The land under cultivation in Japan is
about 100000 acres, upon the product
of which 100000 must be fed. 1t is
unnecessary to add that the farms are
small. The average farm is from one to
three acres, and q ten acre ploti consid
cred large farm. So many things are
done on the diminative scale in Japan.
Space utilizing and territory saving has
been reduced to g. fine art. After survey.
ing the Japanese fields and gardens it is
easy to understand how dwarliug in hor.
ticulture originated ages ago in this
country. The method so long regarded
by other nations as o secret was rerorted
to as a matter of expediency, if not of
necessity, for the limited space would not
otherwise have permitted variety of
growth. If the physical aspect of a coun
try affects the intellectual life of the peo.
pie, then the nearness of view of every
thing in japan may be one influencing
element that tends to eradicate the range
of perspective in the mental vision. At
any rate, ne find in Japan a people who
particularize rather than geueralize, and
who dwell with infinite nicely upon the
details and minutie of everything they
contemplate or undertake, from the writ
ing of a poem to the planting of field.
That extreme cleverness and manual
skill is the expression of certain intellec.
tual traits that fall in the same category
and help to prove the theory.
Farming is not regarded by the Japa-
uese in the light of science, subject 10
the Auctuating notifications of new i'm.
provements, but as an art whose scope
was measured and whose limitations
were conceded long ago. The methods
of cultivation, the succession of crops,
and even the kind of machinery used,
are the same as they we're nearly 1000
years ago. In spite of the agricultural
limitations no country in the world pro-
duces so much per acre as Japan. The
limit of cultivation was reached long ago,
but by judicious use of fertilizers, and
skill in farming that amounts almost to
a genius, the same average yield is Oh
taiuable year after year.
The land is we'll sliited to irrigation,
and the water, which is regarded impure
by fastidious Europeans, is abundant.
Most of the land is made up of plains,
-wh0se surface is we'll drained, being
washed by the water falling upon the
hills and ranges from the back. The nu.
merous rivers and water courses which
cross the plains on their way to the sea
are utilized for purposes of irrigation.
The water is drawn to high elevations
from which it overhows the land in chan