tions of the country the highest average prices paid for a day's labor are twenty-five sens for a man and eighteen sens for a woman. The compensation for a workman hired for a year is about thirty yens, the actual wages ranging from thirteen yens seventy sens up to seventy-four yens. In all cases, however, board is included, and usually lodging, and compared with other classes the real wages of the farmlaborer is decidedly high, In the present condition of the art of agriculture, our typical farmer has to keep one hired man all through the year, and in the harvest seasons he has to hire at least two or three extra laborers. The sum then that goes to pay wages will, perhaps, at a moderate estimate, amount to forty yens a year. Now in regard to the third item, namely manures, it is difficult to give any general statement. Their variety and cost, as well as the amount employed, are so different in different localities. Owing to the high cost of transportation, "portable manures are used to a very limited extent, and in the interior farmers depend altogether upon the fertilizers from closets and stables, ashes, grass, and compost of straw. Thus it is safe to assume that no large outlay is made for this important requisite, and it seldom exceeds over four or five yens per acre. Summing up these different items, a year's account of our five-acre farmer will stand as follows:

Summary of account of a five-acre farm in Japan.

This apparently small sum of net earning is enough to support the farmer in his frugal, yet peaceful and contented life. He sends his boys to school. His wife and daughters spin with their hand-wheel, or weave cloth from imported yarns spun, perhaps, in Bengal or in Manchester factories.

A farmer of the above description is regarded by his order as a man of fortune. There are many whose farms are much smaller and who cultivate as mere tenants, or who supplement their earnings by engaging in other business during a large part of the year. In 1884, this last class numbered above three million, almost one-fourth of the whole agricultural population. The lease systems under which some of the tenants hold their lands are by no means moderate. Nor are they identical in all provinces. In some, the average rate of rent per acre for rice fields is about twenty-four bushels of rice a year, but in this case, all the burdens of land-taxes are born by the land-owner. In the dryer lands, money rent is usually paid, varying in amounts for the dif

ferent crops raised. It is stated by an authority that in some provinces "four-fifths of the crop go to the owner of the land; and from the one-fifth remaining, all the cost of fertilizing and harvesting must be obtained." Such excessive payments are the occasion of much hardship. The cause of the evil lies in the fact that rent is still regulated by feudal customs, and the necessity of some kind of legal interference for such cases is quite evident.

Beside grains, the most important agricultural products are mulberry, tea, cotton, and sugar. From the point of view of national economy, the first two products stand in the foremost rank. It is due to the cultivation of these plants that foreign commerce in Japan has assumed its present magnitude and it is from them that its future expansion is to be expected. In 1887, the exportation of silk amounted to 21,920,902 yens, and that of tea 7,603,341 yens, the two items constituting over 58 per cent. of the total export trade of that year.

Mulberry trees are planted more or less in all provinces with a few exceptions. But the most favorable latitude lies between the 35th and 40th north parallels, and for this purpose, the table land of the middle and northern portions of the main island has been subdued and tilled during the last two decades. The trees are planted there in dry and light soil. They are in rows from ten to twelve feet apart and

The rent of the estates owned by the immediate retainers of the Shogun has been especially enormous.

2A sudden impulse given to silk industry in Japan, when the country was first opened, was due to the high prices paid at the time for raw silk and silk-worm eggs, in consequence of the silkworm disease raging in Europe between 1856 and 1870. See J. J. Rein, The Industries of Japan, p. 188, and also pp. 200-203.

about the same distance from each other.

Until the

third year, the young trees give but a small yield of leaves, and, gradually increasing, they are fully matured, if on good soil, at the eighth or ninth year. The crop from leaves alone is variously estimated from 100 yens to 150 yens per acre, but, both summer and winter, some green crops are always raised between the rows of the trees and additional products are thus realized. Farmers who plant these trees, generally raise silk-worms in their own houses and sell cocoons or even reel them into fine yarns. Thus farmers in those silk regions are somewhat different in character from rice cultivators, and it is in those portions of the country that we occasionally find large farms and something like organization of manual labor. In the silk-worm season, from May to July, there are many families in which forty or fifty men, women, and girls are employed, who pick the mulberry leaves from the branches, cut them, and feed the worms, and when the cocoons are ready, boil them, and spin them into threads. All this is done by unskilled laborers, and the tools used are of a simple and crude order. When we come to consider manufacturers, I shall have occasion to mention many large establishments where modern machines are used. But generally speaking, silk raising under present conditions, must be regarded as a by-industry of farmers.

The cultivation of tea, it is needless to say, is a profitable and lucrative industry. By the wholesome stimulus of foreign market, its total production has grown from 23,012,682 pounds in 1878 to 57,352,641 pounds in 1886, having more than doubled in the course of eight years. The soils that are most sought

after for its cultivation are on the sheltered hillsides, although it flourishes on the plains along the seashore. There the shrubs, four or five feet high, are grown in rows, carefully pruned and trimmed, and the soil between them is thoroughly fertilized with oil-cakes or fish-guano. The plants require constant care in all seasons. The tender leaves, which are sent forth toward the end of spring, are picked by women and girls. They are then taken into houses, steamed, and rolled between mats, and finally fired in ovens. The processes are simple or complicated, according to the kinds of tea prepared, and they all require the careful work of skilled hands. About 2,500 pounds of tea leaves to an acre is considered a fair return, and occasionally over 3,000 pounds are produced. The net earnings of tea planters are therefore much greater than those of ordinary farmers. They live in comfortable homes and keep laborers and pack-horses to do most of the work. Tea is cultivated to some extent in almost all of the provinces. Its chief centre lies in the island of Hondo, between 34° and 36° north latitude. Suruga, Mino, Ise, and other provinces along the eastern coast stand in advance of all the others in the area devoted to tea culture.2

Cotton and sugar are other agricultural products. worthy of attention. But the limit of our space admits of no more than a passing notice. Cotton is

'In general four pounds of fresh tea leaves yield one pound of the finished article.

"There are still large areas where both the soil and climate are well adapted to the growth of tea, and, as we shall see later, it is in this direction that the Japanese agriculture is to be extended in the immediate future.