The industries of Japan : together with an account of its agriculture, forestry, arts, and commerce : from travels and researches undertaken at the cost of the Prussian government / by J.J. Rein.

Johannes Justus Rein

Date:: 1889

Credit: The industries of Japan : together with an account of its agriculture, forestry, arts, and commerce : from travels and researches undertaken at the cost of the Prussian government / by J.J. Rein. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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$When such a boat reaches its destination, its contents, already- thinned with water, are baled out with dippers by Hiakusho (peasants). Small tubs on long poles serve for dipping out and transferring the manure, and still smaller ones for distributing it to the plants. Thus the plants are manured and watered at the same time. All young winter produce and vegetables are treated in this way, but never rice. It is only in time of a great abundance that this manure is col- lected in little vats sunk in the fields, and in big buried casks and tubs, roofed over with straw, for later use. As a rule, it is applied direct and fresh, so that its strength, especially of ammonia, is kept from being dissipated. In many Japanese cities the carrying away of cesspool matter is provided for by companies under whose employ are the above- mentioned Koye-tori. These companies pay the householders for this privilege prices which rise and fall with the time of year, according to the demand. They are highest in spring, falling off in winter frequently by more than one-half Ten years ago the average price in Yokohama for a ka (a man's burden, here two bucketfuls) was from six to eight sen. Three years ago it rose to ten sen ; in April, to twelve and a half, and in this month the company sold the manure to farmers for fourteen and fifteen sen per ka. In Tokio, where the demand is less in proportion to the enormous amount exported, the prices are relatively lower; in many smaller places, higher. It is comparatively within recent times that cesspool manure has become of any value and an object of purchase with us, as in Stuttgart, where it is bought by the Suabian peasants. A great role is also played by compost (Koye-tsuchi, manure- earth, or Koyashi-tsuchi). This is prepared from earth and every possible sort of vegetable and animal offal, and is often moistened with dung-water, or even with water merely, in order to hasten de- composition. Lime is never used for this purpose. On being applied, compost often receives an addition of dung or even of green manure. Fish-guano is the most expensive and highly-prized of animal manures. It is an important article of commerce, made up of the offal of various kinds of fish, but especially of several varieties of herring, for example the Nishin {Cliipea kare?igics), the Iwashi {Cliipea melanosticta and CI. gracilis), and the Isaza {Engraulis ■'aponiciis). These fish appear in great shoals, in ]\Iarch and April, and again in October and November, off certain parts of the Japanese coast, the eastern shore of Yezo, for instance, the coast of Hitachi, along the shores of the Japan Sea, etc. They are not smoked or salted, as in Europe, but chiefly caught for the sake of a kind of train-oil, while their ill-smelling remains, when dried, appear in commerce as manure. After the oil has been extracted by boiling the fish in water, the remains are spread out in the fields, dried in the sun, and then exported either loose or$