Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1903-07-31
AGRICULTURE In JAPAN.
American Methods Followed in Develop.
ing the Country.

nS 4S,1OO,OOO oC1CS, LII pau,
support a population of $4,000, 900;
that is, that every acre supports
nearly three and one-haf persons;
that the japanese farmer, with total
assets rarely worth 500, can produce
crops which sell for 800 gold; that
on this amount he can support fam
lily In comparative comfort, and that
there are still in the island nearly 3d.
00O, 900 acres uncultiyated are some
of the statements which Mr.. David G.
Fairchild presents In letter recently
received from him by his chief, the
secretary of agriculture.
Mr.. Fairchild goes on to state that
the japanese government is estab-
fishing, Institutes of agricultural re-
search modelled after the system of
the United States; that within the
past five or six years the government
has established nine well-equipped
experiment stations, (which compare
favorably with those which were es-
tablished in America only few years
ago." and which are controlled from
central station at Togo, which dis
burses annually $4,000 gold, along
the most up-to-date lines of agricul-
tural experimentation. The direc-
tors and assistants in these stations
are described as industrious, enthu-
siastic men, who enjoy nothing so
well as the use of their microscopes or
to study the habits of injurious in
sects."
At Komaba is an agricultural col
lege at which Prof. Loew, formerly of
the United States department of ag-
riculture, imparts a thorough and
comprehensive knowledge of chemis-
try to the young japanese students,
knowledge which many of them have
already turned to excellent advan-
tage in the analyzing of the CONNER
cial fertilizers which are extensively
used and the product of the numer-
Gus factories manufacturing rape
seed cake.
In the criticism of japanese expert
mental work Mr. Fairchi1d says that
the experts are somewhat too much
given to purely scientific work as dis
tinguished from science in its prac-
teal application, but this fault, he
predicts, will be remedied in the near
future.
The increased interest in scientific
plant cultivation in Japan is unmis-
taxable, and with the introduction
of compulsory school education sew
eral years ago and the formation in
every district of agricultural soci->
cites, the quick diss emination and as
similation of new facts relating to the
different plant industries are prac-
tically assured. Bulletins illustrated
with photographs and charts for the
instruction of the farmers are being
printed by the thousands, and in the
middle schools the sciences related to
agriculture are taught much as they
are in America. Even in many of
the primary schools gardens of named
plants for the instruction of the chill
dren are to be found. These changes
would come slowly with any other
race than one which, like the Japan
csc, is saturated with love of plants,
The lowest born coolie knows more
about the care of potted plant than
80 per cent. of the educated classes of
America or Europe. They are race
Of plant artists and care for fancy va
rieties Of flowers as other nations do
for pet animals. Yet it is surpris-
ing fact that notwithstanding this
love for plant life the japanese are
not great plant breeders, and artifi-
cial hybridization is not well under
stood nv them