Page:A handbook of modern Japan (IA handbookofmodern01clem).pdf/45

Rh Farming, like almost everything in that land of miniatures, is on a limited scale, as each man has only a very small holding. "There is no farm in Japan; there are only gardens" (Uchimura). Even a "petty farmer" of our Northwest would ridicule the extremely insignificant farms of the Japanese, who, in turn, would be astounded at the prodigious domains of a Dalrymple. A careful investigator, Dr. Karl Rathgen, has summed up the situation as follows: "In Japan are to be found only small holdings. A farm of five chō (twelve acres) is considered very large. As a rule the Japanese farmer is without hired labor and without cattle. The family alone cultivates the farm, which, however, is so small that a large share of the available labor can be devoted to other purposes besides farming, such as the production of silk, indigo, tobacco. The average holding for the whole of Japan (excluding the Hokkaidō) for each agricultural family is 8.3 tan (about two acres), varying from a maximum of 17.6 tan in the prefecture of Aomori to a minimum of 5.3 tan in the prefecture of Wakayama." "There are no large landed proprietors in Japan."

A Japanese farm is so insignificant, partly because a Japanese farmer has only a very small capital, and needs only a slight income to support life. It has been estimated that a man so fortunate as to own a farm of five chō obtains therefrom an annual income of 100 or 120 yen. And yet the Japanese