White Pine news weekly mining review. [volume] (East Ely, Nev.) 1910-1920, 1913-05-25
JAPANESE FARMS
PRODUCTIVE
SCARCITY OF LAND HAS RESULT
ED IN REDUCING AGRICuL-
TURE TO A SCIENCE IN CROP
PRODUCTION.

Owing to the Japanese problem
now SO acute in California the fol-
lowing account has timely interest.
1t is taken from Clarence Poe's book,
Where Half the World Is Waking
Up" a book sent out recently by the
Doubleday-Page Press. Mr.. Poe
says of the japanese farms:
"Forty-six farmers out of every
n hundred in Japan own less than
one and one-quarter acres of land;
twenty-six more out of every one
hundred own less than two and one
half acres, and only one man in a
hundred owns as much as twenty-five
acres.
Ordinarily, however, these little
handkerchief-sized farms yield amaz-
ingly. 1t has been shown by Pro-
fessor F. G. King that the fields of
Japan are cultivated so intensively,
fortified so painstakingly, and kept
so continuously producing some crop
that they feed 2,277 people to the
square mile. and that 21.321 square
miles of cultivated fields in the main
Islands support a population of 49,
~542,367. If the titled fields of Iowa,
for example, supported an equal num-
Der of people per square mile, the
population 50 supported would be
over loo, 000, 900. That state alone
could feed the entire population of
the United States and then have an
excess produce left for export to 9TH
er countries.
These japanese lands have been
in cultivation for unnumbered CEN
turtles.
"Of course, with a population so
dense and with each man %cultivating
an area no larger than a garden
patch in America, the people are
poor; and the wonder is that they
are able TO produce food enough to
keep the country from actual want
Practically no animal meat is ever
eaten. If we EXCEPT fish, the aver
age American eats nearly twice as
much meat in a week as the average
japanese does in a year; to be exact,
$50 pounds of meat per capita is re-
1uired per year for the average Amer
lean against II pounds for the aver
age Japanese. Many of the farmers
here are too poor even to eat a good
quality of rice. Consequently Japan
presents the odd phenomenon of be-
ing at once ar exporter and a large
importer of rice. Poor farmers sell
their good rice and buy a poorer
quality brought in from the main
land of Asia and mix il with barley
for grinding.
Only about one farmer in three
has a horse or an OK; in most cases
all the work must be done by hand
and with crude tools. 1t is pitiful-
or rather it would be pltiful il they
~ " ofltat ~ 1oiiAthitd Stt
men breaking ground, not by plough
ing but by digging. with kuwas-
long-handled tools with blades per-
haps six inches wide and two feet
long.
with land so scarce 1t is, of
course, necessary to keep something
on the ground every growing day
from years end to years end. Truck
ers and gardeners raise three crops
a year. The crops in Japan are not
varied. Rice represents half the
agricultural values. Next to rice is
the silk-worm industry. and then
barley, wheat, vegetables, soy beans,
sweet potatoes and fruits.
The hillside or mountain slopes
are cultivated to the last available
foot. and In dry seasons you may
ven see the men and women carry
ing buckets uphill to water any suf-