cially, by the use of manures, which they understand well, they make very
large crops.
Their chief grain is rioe, of which they are said to produce the best in
all Asia. They also make barley and wheat. The first is used for feeding
the cattle; the other is not much valued, aud is chiefly used for cakes and
soy. This last is made by fermenting, under ground, wheat with a peculiar
kind of bean and salt.
Next to rioe, in importance, is the tea plant. This was not cultivated in
Japan before the beginning of the ninth century, when it was introduced into
China. Immense quantities of it are now produced, for its use is universal.
Besides the plantations devoted to it, the hedges on the farms are all of the
tea plant. Siebold says the finer kinds require great care and skill in the
cultivation. The plantations are situated, as far as they conveniently can
be, from all other crops and from human habitations, lest the delicacy of the
tea should be impaired by smoke or any other impurity. They manure the
plants with dried anchovies, and with the juice pressed out of mustard seed.
The harvesting is a process of great nicety. Dr. Siebold thinks that the
green and black tea are from the same plant, and differ only in the mode of
preparation; though others have said the plants themselves differ. Neither,
however, is ever dried on copper, but both are dried in an iron pan.
Beans of various kinds are produced, and some other vegetables. Several
edible roots are carefully cultivated. They grow the mulberry tree in
large quantities for the sake of the silk worm, and also for making paper.
In Loo-Choo they make a coarse sugar from the cane; in Nippon they manufacture
it from the sap of a tree. Our farmers deem it a part of their
business to rear such animals as we use for food; but the Japanese farmer
is most frequently a Buddhist and cares nothing for animal food. The
Dutch, a great while ago, introduced some sheep and goats, and some few
may, possibly, still be found in the Kingdom. I f attended to they would
thrive very well; but the religion of the natives forbids them to eat the
flesh, and they do not know how to manufacture the wool and hair; hence
the animals are little valued. They have, also, a few hogs, which were originally
brought from China. Some of the country people near the coast keep
them, but not to eat. They sell them to the Chinese junks which are allowed
to come over to trade. The Chinese sailor has a passion for pork. The hog
thrives well and becomes very fat in Japan.
Horticulture.—In this department the Japanese are very skilful. They
possess the art, in a wonderful degree, either of dwarfing, or of unnaturally
enlarging all natural productions. As an evidence of the first, may be seen,
in the miniature gardens of the towns, perfectly mature trees, of various
kinds, not more than three feet high, and with heads about three feet in
diameter. These dwarfed trees are often placed in flower pots. Fischer
says that he saw in a box four inches long, one and a half wide, and six in
height, a bamboo, a fir, and a plum tree, all thriving, and the latter in full
blossom. As proofs of the last, Meylan tells us that he saw plum trees covered
with blossoms, each of which was four times the size of the cabbage
rose; it produced no fruit, however. He also saw radishes weighing from
fifty to sixty pounds; and those of fifteen pounds were not at all uncommon.
The fir trees are represented as being forced to an enormous size; we are
told that the branches, at the height of seven or eight feet from the ground,
are led out, sometimes over ponds, and supported upon props, so that they
give a shade around the tree three hundred feet in diameter. The cedar,
also, is a tree which reaches a great size.
Navigation.—Formerly the Japanese made voyages, in vessels of their
own construction, to Corea, China, Java, Formosa, and other places at some
distance from their own islands; but when the Portuguese were expelled a
deoree was made that the natives should not leave the country; hence navigation
declined. Still, short coasting voyages are made within the boundaries
of the Kingdom; and fishing-smacks go to sea, but not very far from
the coast. This coasting trade, however, is large; and the Japanese use
fish for food so extensively, that the number is immense of these trading
boats and fishing-smacks. The Japanese have the compass; not divided,
however, into as many points as ours. The construction of their vessels, as
to model, is very clumsy; and, as they have seen and examined many European
ships, it may seem strange that a people so skilful and ingenious should
not, ere this, have improved in naval architecture. The fault is not theirs;
the fact is that they have, in more than one instance, built very good vessels
after European models ; but the law has interposed, for a special reason, and
retarded improvement among a people whose insular position would have
made them sailors, and whose quick perceptions would have made them good
ones if left to themselves. Their craft are, by law, made with the stem
open, so that they cannot weather an open and heavy sea. The smaller ones
never, if they can help it, go out of sight of land, and upon any threatening
appearance of rough weather they instantly run in to make a harbor. The
object of this law of construction is to keep the natives at home.
Internal trade by land and water.—ThiB is large, resulting from the
variety of produce afforded by the variety of climate, and from the immense
population. In many places, town joins on to town, and village to village,
for miles, so that the road looks like a continued street. Ksempfer thus
speaks of the population: “ The country is indeed populous beyond expression,
and one would scarcely think it possible that, being no greater than it
is, it should, nevertheless, maintain and support such a vast number of inhabitants.
The highways are almost one continued line of villages and boroughs.
You scarce come out of one, but you enter another; and you may travel
many miles, as it were, in one street, without knowing it to be composed of
many villages, save by the differing names that were formerly given them,