The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1909-04-06
TRAVELS AMONG TIE PEOPLE>
WHO PAY THE WAR BILLS.

WHO PAY THE WAR BILLS.
\ Vast Country OF Garden Patches
Piouing With NIattocks-A Look at
the Villages-What a Farmland
Gets-How the Government is Edu-
eating the Farn4ers-Tne japanese
Horses-The New Agricultural So
cieties-Two. Hundred Experiment
stations and Three Hundred Farm
Lectures-Go1ernment Banks for
Farm Loans.
Copyright, 1909, by Frank G. Car
penter.)
"a ~ Osaka, Japan.
During the past two months | have
been travelling through the farming
districts Of Japan. They should be
an object lesson to the United States.
The country is kept like a garden. and
it is as fat as the valley Of the Nile.
A great part of it, however, is covered
with forests, much Of it is mountain
Gus. and, all told, the cultivated parts
are half as big as the State OF ONO.
Nevertheless. this small area is now
feeding more than SO, 100000 people.
or more than one-half as many as we
have in the United States. 1t pro
duces. every year 100, 900, 600 bushels
- of rye, barley and wheat; 25O,0O0.OOO
OuSi1oiS OIL rice, anu f1cdI1g iUU,VVuspOo
pounds Of tobacco. It grows $4,000
900 pounds of tea, 10. 100000 bushels
Of silk cocoons as we'll as Duckwheat,
millet, BEANS. indigo, cotton and hemp.
The rice crop alone is worth S200,O0O,-
900 per annum.
Among the Farms.
I can give you no idea Of &he inten-
SiVe which is going or here.
The whole country is divided up into
patches, ranging in size from that OF
a bed quilt to tracts Of an acre or SO,
and every bit of it is as clean OF weeds
as a government flower bed. There
are no fences. and one looks over q
crazy Guilt, made up of patches OF
many colored crops bound together
with the green grass which forms the
boundaries Of the fields. The Japa-
: nese farms are, on the average, not
more than two acres in size, and only
Is per cent of all the holdings are OF
more than four acres.
The ownership is widely scattered.
There are, altogether, about eiSh ut mil
lion families engaged in agriculture.
and many Of these have their whole
living from two acres Of ground. 9th
ers have small tracts Of their owl
and rent more. AS it is today, only
about one-ha1f of the land is worked
by the owners. The rest is farlned
by tenants who pay q proportion OF
the crops or high money rents.
But come with me and take a look
at the farming country. It is nothing
like that Of America. There are no
barns nor hay stacks. There are no
big fields n TO cattle nor horses.
The ordinary japanese farmer would
look upon q Pennsylvania bank barn
as q temple, and worship in it il he
saw it. He would look upon our
sheep as so many wild and q
Percheron horse or a shOrthorn COW
rx-o1,l1 no &C mnch ont nf n11ca ON
his little tract as the traditional bull
in the china shop. This is so, not
Withstanding there are something like
two million cattle and horses in Japan.
Most Of them, however, are used for
freighting or as draft ANNA to carry
goods oven the country. They are al
way@ kept up and n never sees them
roaming about or feeding alone in the
fields. The cart is the chief farm We
hic1e and it is more often hauled by
men or bullocks than by horses.
i, All Hand Labor.
On the other hand, the American
farmer would be los if he came to
Japan. If he brought along a reaping
machine, his horses would tramp down
his neighbours crops While turning it
around in his fields; and, as for q
thrasher, the people would mob him
for taking away the work from the
laboring classes. He could not use
his ploWs without he bought up q
whole county, ard his fences would
be useless to say the least. He would
be surprised at every step at thel
methods of good cultivation. lie would
see wheat, oats and barley plantec
in series and tr~ansp1anted again in
rows a hands breadth apart. He would
see these crops Weeded as we weed
onions, and would eventually see them
reaped with sickles close to the
ground. After cutting, the straws are
laid end to end in little sheaves and
tied with q wisp at the bottom. Each
sheaf is then pulled apart, and hung
to dry. Later on, the heads of the
grain are out of with q knife, and
thrashed out with fail. In many
places the grain is winnowed by