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a month before the grain ripens. Liquid manure is plentifully applied to the fields from time to time, and the crop is ready for harvesting in from three to five months after transplanting.

Upland rice is extensively grown in China, principally in the interior districts upon high lands requiring but little irrigation, and upon soils suitable for wheat or barley. Its cultivation requires much less labor and attention than that of lowland rice. The soil is plowed after thorough manuring and the seed is sown in drills, generally during March. The soil is kept loose between the drills and free from weeds, and liquid fertilizers are applied several times during the season. Harvesting occurs in September. Upland rice is said to have been introduced into China during the tenth century; there are three varieties of it, precocious, mid-season, and late-growing or Manchooria rice. It is generally considered to have a more agreeable taste than the lowland rice, but is less productive. In general all Asiatic rice is of smaller grain than that grown in South Carolina, and is not so white and is of less excellent quality. The best Chinese rice is said to be that produced upon the plains of Kiang-Su.

In Ningpo some fields were planted with poppy about March 1, the crop being gathered about June 1, and the ground then prepared and planted with a particular variety of rice, "lo-mi," especially grown for preparing a fermented liquor, "samshu," the crop being harvested in November. In many provinces, particularly where there are early harvests, two crops of rice are raised in a season, though very often the fields are planted with vegetables after the rice crop is gathered, not so much with a view to rotation as to utilize time and opportunity. Sometimes a crop of wheat or barley is followed by one of rice, not always the most profitable way of farming, but one in which the soil is not much exhausted and which saves expense for manure. The Chinese have long been accustomed to improve the quality of their rice by selection of seed; and a very old imperial edict, still in force, enjoins the selection of the largest seed for sowing.*

No improvement upon the ancient methods of harvesting and thrashing has ever been introduced into China. The grain is cut close to the ground with sickles, and is dried in the sun and afterwards thrashed by the flail or by treading out with oxen. The commonest mode of thrashing, however, is by beating the heads of the grain against the edges of a box into which the paddy falls. Winnowing is done by pouring the grain from baskets in the wind, large paper fans being used when the breeze is not strong enough to blow away the chaff.

Husking is done by means of stone rollers, and cleaning by pounding in mortars. These operations are not performed by the small farmers, who find it more profitable to sell their crops as paddy and to buy what rice they need for family consumption ready cleaned. Thus rice-cleaning forms a trade of itself, the rice-cleaners, who are

*Consular Report No. 102, February, 1889.

also dealers and speculators, sending agents into the country to buy paddy from the farmers. The husks are used in various ways, as for packing china, for mixing with building mortar as we use hair, or, finally, for fuel. The broken rice is ground into flour, and the straw is made into bags or hats or is used for thatch or as fodder for cattle. The idea of using the husks or straw as a fertilizer for the rice fields does not seem to have occurred to the Chinese.

The yield of lowland rice upon the best fields in China is said to average 5 piculs per "mao" when two crops are raised in a season, a picul being equivalent to 133 pounds. This would amount to 4,000 pounds per acre, or 2,000 pounds at each crop, in the form of paddy. Upland rice is said to yield about 30 bushels of cleaned rice to an acre, weighing 60 pounds to the bushel, or 1,800 pounds of cleaned rice, equivalent to 3,200 pounds of paddy, since by the Chinese method a picul of paddy yields, it is said, 75 pounds of clean rice. Rice is an important factor in the internal commerce of the Empire, even taxes being paid in it. A certain quantity of rice, generally of the upland variety, is sent to Pekin every year as imperial tribute for the use of the Emperor and his family and soldiers, and also for distribution in time of famine. This custom is of ancient origin, and is still kept up, though from many provinces an equivalent in money is now sent.

JAPAN.

Rice is the staple crop of Japan and forms the principal food of its people. It is cultivated almost all over the country south of 36° north latitude, wherever irrigation is possible, and flourishes best in the valleys, where the soil is very fertile. It is said that 95 per cent of the rice grown is lowland rice, though upland rice succeeds well and is attentively cultivated.

Very much the same conditions of rice cultivation exist in Japan as those existing in China. The land is divided in the same way into small lots, rarely more than an acre in extent, and often of not more than a fourth of an acre, so that the cultivation partakes somewhat of the nature of market-gardening. The same method of sowing broadcast upon a small field and transplanting to a larger is followed, and the crop is cultivated, harvested, and prepared for market in nearly the same way.

One or two differences, however, may be noticed. Although the rainfall in Japan is very heavy, varying from 60 inches annually upon the lowlands near the coast to 70 or 75 inches near the mountains or of 100 inches upon their slopes, irrigation is nevertheless an important factor in all Japanese agriculture, and has been successfully practiced for upwards of a thousand years. Large, costly, and solidly built irrigation works have been established throughout the islands, and mountain streams have been directed to supply them, the water often being

brought from great distances by canals winding around the mountains, and thus the water supply is equalized throughout the year.

The implements used in Japan are fully as primitive as those used in China, the land being broken up by a wooden plow shod with iron and drawn by an ox or water buffalo, or even sometimes by a cow. Modern agricultural implements have not as yet been extensively introduced into the country, though American hand tools, such as hoes, rakes, or spades, would probably be appreciated, especially as the Jap anese have not the same prejudice against foreign "barbarians" that the Chinese have. Improved and cheap rice-cleaning machinery might be more extensively introduced there, but the configuration of the land and the small size of the fields would render the introduction of reaping machines impracticable. The Japanese have one serviceable instrument peculiar to themselves. This is a mattock, or heavy hoe, with an iron blade about 16 inches long and 4 inches wide, and weighing some 6 or 8 pounds, the wooden handle of which is about 5 feet long. This instrument is, by a powerful blow, sunk to the full length of the blade into the soil, a large clod of which may be then turned by the leverage of the long handle. This process is a slow one, but seems to break up the soil in a manner that could not be done by the primitive plow above mentioned.

Like the Chinese, the Japanese pay great attention to fertilizers and use them plentifully. Night soil is carried from the cities and fermented in tanks and generally applied to the fields in a liquid state. Near the coast seaweed and fish are also used, and very often, as in the United States, rice straw, husks, and chaff are used, generally being rotted with animal manure. This economy of fertilizers has enabled the Japanese to raise, in some cases, three crops of rice in a season from the same land. Ashes of straw, grass, and bamboo leaves are also used.

Great attention is given to the selection of seed. The general method of doing this is to watch the rice as it matures, and when the stalk has assumed a perfect green color the time for selection has come. Close inspection will show that some parts of the rice head are of a very light yellow color, while other parts retain more of the color of the stalk, and it is these latter parts which are selected for seed, and are dried and stored with extreme care, being assiduously preserved from all dampness which would impair their vitality. Seed should not be selected upon low, boggy land, nor upon land of extreme fertility, the best seed being found upon a medium grade of soil.

As has been said, the Japanese method of cultivation is not essentially different from that practiced in China. The soil is prepared in March or April by flooding, manuring, and plowing, or breaking up with the mattock, and finally by leveling and harrowing. All soil removed in leveling is preserved to grow vegetables in. The seed is prepared by soaking in bags until it begins to germinate, or sometimes

by burying the bags a foot or two deep in sandy soil. The seed bed having been prepared and reduced to a state of thick mud by flooding and harrowing, sowing is done from mid-April to May, the seed being sown broadcast, but not too thickly, at the rate of about 14 bushels per acre. The young rice seems to grow more slowly than in China, as it is not transplanted until from six to eight weeks after sowing, and is then only from 4 to 6 inches in height. June 5 is a national holiday, or "transplanting day," and is a favorite date for performing this work. The beds upon which the young plants are set out are from 2 to 3 inches deep in water, and have been prepared in the same manner as the seed beds. Upon the best soils, well prepared, about thirty-six bunches, with from three to five sprouts in a bunch, are set out upon a surface 6 feet square, but upon poorer soils sixty-four bunches, with ten sprouts to a bunch, are set out in the same space. Care is taken to place the plants deep enough to obtain a good hold upon the soil, yet not too deep. After transplanting is done the field is flooded, and pulverized fertilizer, generally rape seed, oil cake, or fish scrap, scattered over the field and the water drawn off, leaving the soaked fertilizer about the roots of the plants. The field is frequently flooded during the growing season, but the flow does not seem to be continuous. The hoe is actively employed and all weeds are kept down. The Japanese also have a custom of pruning the roots of the rice, cutting off superfluous small roots which form on the tops of the larger ones. This requires a great deal of care and labor, no doubt, but it should be remembered that their fields are very small and receive all the attention of a garden. Even the eggs of insects are searched for and picked off by hand.

When the rice head begins to show, late in August or in September, a light yellowish tinge which foretells ripening, the water is drawn off and the field allowed to dry and the grain to ripen. Harvesting takes place early in October, the grain being cut with a sickle, and in favorable weather allowed to dry upon the fields. It is then bound in sheaves and carried to higher land to be thrashed at leisure.

Upland rice is grown upon the high lands, and in ordinary climates requires little or no irrigation. It seems to flourish as well in the northern parts of the main island, at about 40° north latitude, as it does in the central and southern portions. The dry soils are prepared with less than half the labor required for preparing lowland fields. In some favorably located districts the upland fields receive irrigation, but this is not the usual practice, and is seldom necessary. The seed is sown in April or May, from 1 to 14 bushels being used to the acre. Drills are made about 18 inches apart, and receive a compost of night soil, wood ashes, and well-rotted rice straw before the seed is planted, while during the growing season small quantities of liquid fertilizers are applied to the roots of the crop. Upland rice is never transplanted. The crop is harvested in September or October, the yield being less than that of lowland rice and the profits smaller in proportion. The

lowland fields are allowed to rest during the winter, but after the rice crop is gathered the upland fields are often immediately replowed and manured and sown with wheat or barley.

Strictly speaking, rice is not thrashed in Japan, but is hatcheled or stripped, the heads being drawn through the teeth of a sort of rake made for the purpose. Winnowing is done as it is China. Husking is done by passing the grain between millstones formed of sections of bamboo. The grain is cleaned in the usual way by pounding in mortars, batteries of stamps being worked by water power where available. These operations are done at special mills, and not by farmers, who sometimes, however, husk their paddy by beating with flails upon straw mats. A small quantity of American rice-cleaning machinery has already been introduced at Nagasaki, and meets with approbation.

The straw and husks are utilized as in China, besides being used as a fertilizer.

The average yield of lowland rice is stated to be 50 bushels of paddy to the acre, averaging in weight about 53 pounds to the bushel, while that of upland rice is given as from 30 to 40 bushels to the acre. The best Japanese rice is said to be that grown about Nagasaki. This sells at from $2.40 to $2.80 per picul of 1333 pounds, and in quality is said to be second only to the best Carolina rice. It is understood that an agent of the Japanese Government is now in the United States to examine the South Carolina method of cultivation with a view to introducing it, as well as the Carolina rice itself, into Japan. It is to be hoped that the Japanese, as a progressive and intelligent people, will be more successful in this direction than have been the native planters in India.

The Government tax upon rice in Japan is very high, and often swallows up half the profits of the farmer. Formerly, as in China, the exportation of rice was forbidden, but several years ago this edict was repealed, and it is now hoped that production, previously regulated solely by home demand, will receive an impetus and that rice will become an important article of exportation.

INDIA.

In this country rice forms the principal food of 273,000,000 people, or of 18.6 per cent of the world's population, and is therefore the crop of greatest importance. The number of acres cultivated with rice reaches over 57,000,000 in an average year. It is produced in all sections of the country, upon almost every variety of soil, and under widely differing conditions of climate, altitude, and water supply, so that by continued and varying cultivation some 1,400 varieties of lowland and upland rice are now to be found there.

As in China, the rice lands are generally in the hands of native landowners (zemindars), who lease it out to the native small farmers (ryots)

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