The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-02-11
Bx WILLIAM JENNINGS BRYAN. (Cppyrighf, 1906, by Joseph D. BewIes --Copyrsgbt, in Great Britatn--
 All Rights Reserved.)

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 The basis of Japahese industry is agriculture, although each year shows a tecreasing proportion engaged in the tiliinB of the soil. Rice is the prinei- pal product, but owing to the large amount consumed at home 1t is not the chief export As this crop needs all, abundance of water, the rice fields oc- cupy the low lands or the mountain gorges. Sometimes the narrow valleys thai pierce the ranges are so terraced as to look like steps, and at tnis ume of the year when the crops are being harvested theyNresemble golden stars. The men and women work together m the field, and in many places we saw them standing almost knee-aeep n mud. cutting the grain with an old- fashioned hand sickle The rice is tied in bundles somewhat smaller than our wheat sheaves and hung over poles or laid along the edge of terrace to cure. If the threshing Is delayed the gram Is stacked, not as we stack wheat ana oats in the United States. but in little columns with tho heads of the sheaves lied to a pole in tho center, Some times the stacks are built around a living tree. The grain is separated from the straw by means of a long-toothed comb, and at this season innumerable groups of persons are busily engaged at this work. The yellow heaps of rice
 
 like wheat, can be seen from the train and from the country roads Straw mats are used to keep the grain on the ground and. I may add that the mat IS in evidence everywhere in Japan ana is used for all sorts of purposes.
 The cultivation of the tea plant IS an industry of no small magnitude, al- though not so universal as the cultiva- tion of rice The tea fields occupy the hi8her levels and add an intsresting variety to the landscape At one poiis on the railroad between Yokohama ana Nagoya the hillsides are covered witn tea plantations if such tiny farms can be called plantations. The tea plant is something like our gooseberry and currant bushes in size. b It the foliage is much thicker. The leaves vary wide lv in yaiue from the cheaper grades. which are exported, to the uji. wnicn costs what Is equivalent to nve or more dollars per pound.
 Some cotton is grown here, but the cotton plant, as we saw it, is small compared with eur plant and the till. ahfe area is too limited to admit or the growing of cotton on large seale.
 Tobacco Is cultivated to some extent but the sale of manufactured tobacco is "a Government prerogative.
 Raw silk Is by far the. most valuable export, s35,000, ,o00 worth having been sent abroad last year. Three-fifths of the entire export goes to the United States, the remainder to Europe, with France as the largest European pur- chaser. As S15,000,000 worth of SIX fabrics went abroad, also. as ags'nss a nsd $5s000, GOO worth of tea and S4,o00,OD0 wofth of rice; it will be seen that the, cultivation of the silk worm and the mulberry tree is extensively carried on. The silk worms are kept indoors and the leaves brought in to them. When put outdoors the silk worms are deyoured by birds.
 Fruitg grow here in great variety. we have found everywhere copies or excellent quality. raised in the north ern part of the islands. while the south- ern islands produce oranges, bananas and pineapples, The apple tree was imported from America thirty~five years ago; now apples are exported to Cnina and siheris. The most popular orange is the farg er riae.s er kid glove aoren aes, as fttfs sometimes called many of these are fmportsd.
 Thers isA q kind of fruit called the ban.tan. grown on the lslapd of kytT shu. 1t looks something like the grape fruit, but grows considerably larger and has a, thicker skin; the meat is pink in color, sweeter and less juicy than the grape fruit. Pears grow here; one variety looks like a russett apple fin shape and color. Peach trees are sometimes trained as we train grape vines on an arbor. so that the orchard seems to have fiat roof of foliage.
 They have herey too, persiulrnons as large as apples and as solid. We found these on the table in all parts of the island and there are several Yarieties The grape is cultivated in Japan, but we did not see grape vines in such pro- fusion as they are seen in Southern Europe, along the lakes in Western New York or in California. And. in this connection, I may add that wine Is not used here to the extent that 1t is in some other countries, the national drink, SC lge, being made from ferments ed rice Ordinarily this beverage con- tains from Ii to It per cent. of alco- hoI, but there IS stronger kind called shochn, whieh contains as much as 50 per cent. Of alcohol. It is evident, however, that liquor by any other name can be as Intoxicating as our whiskey and we found at Tokio Ma tionaI Temperance Society with branches throughout the empire. MT. Ando, the president of this society, is 8 Japanese gentleman of great earnest ness and intelligence, who was con- verted to Christianity a few years ago when he was representing his country in another artIcie.I have seen no evi- dences Of drunkenness, Mir. Ando ih- forms me that his society has ample work to do. l carry back with me a badge which the society," bestowed on learning of my total abstinence habits.
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